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PRINCETON - NEW JERSEY 





CES 
FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER 


CBD 
BV 210 .A5 1924 
Ainslie, Peter, 


1867-1934 
The way of prayer 


WORKS BY 
Py Eee ics AS La wSc Lie Es Dies 








THE WAY* OF SPRAYER a yay 09) tee ee eeU 
IF NOT A UNITED CHURCH, WHAT? ._ 1.00 


THE MESSAGE OF THE DISCIPLES OF 
CHRIST FOR THE UNION OF THE 


CHURCH) sotto ysl aise |) 2 DD 
CHRIST OR NAPOLEON, WHICH? , . ' 1.00 
MY BROTHERGAND I Dae e, ais mae + a 


GOD VAIN)! MIS. resi einn hah auc Pharm Walla 1 Bid 50 


The Way of Prayer 


OF ivf 


rep 


A» 
if 


By <C0GIGAL SENNA 
PETER AINSLIE 


New York CHICAGO 
Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 





Copyright, 1924, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


Printed in the United States of America 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Contents 


Have You a Castle? 
THe Primacy OF PRAYER 
CALL TO PRAYER 

Day By Day 


Prayer for Daily Claims 

Sunday— Prayer for the Whole Church 

Monday—Prayer for ‘Those in Sorrow 
and Sickness 


-'Tuesday—Prayer for the Social Awak- 


ening 
Wednesday—Prayer for World-wide 
Evangelization 


Thursday—Prayer for Child Training 
and Education 

Friday—Prayer for All Nations 

Saturday —Prayer for Personal Interests 

Family Worship 

Prayer Period at Pentecost 


THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER 

THe Reariry oF PRAYER 

‘THE PROFESSION OF PRAYER 
FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 
HINDRANCES IN PRAYER. 

THe Hurt or Hurry IN PRAYER 
THe Dancer or Quiet Hours 


[5] 


IO 


ee 


33 
oo) 
55 
63 
71 
SI 
gt 


XII. 
GWE 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 
XX, 
XXI. 


CONTENTS 


SILENT WorsHIP 

THE BIBLE AND PRAYER 
‘TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 
Common DurIEs AND PRAYER 
THe Ministry OF HEALING . 
A RETREAT 


SELECTED PSALMS 


Penitential Psalms 
Thanksgiving Psalms 
Petition Psalms 
Nature Psalms 
Adoration Psalms 


THE PRAYER OF JEsuS 
Does Gop SPEAK ? 
THE Lorp’s PRAYER 


[6] 


97 
105 
113 
11g 
125 
135 
147 


201 
204 
205 


Foreword 


ECENTLY, I took a year’s leave of absence from 

my ministry in Baltimore in order to visit as many 

universities and colleges in the United States as 
that time would permit, speaking on the adjustment of 
international and interracial disputes by courts of justice, 
rather than by physical force, and the necessity of a united 
Christendom for the accomplishment of these things. My 
tour extended as far west as California and I delivered 
in all more than two hundred addresses. In many in- 
stances I met in conference student groups for the dis- 
cussion of spiritual life. Out of these conferences I have 
prepared this little book in an attempt both to answer, 
and to give direction to, some of the inquiries. 

This book emphasizes prayer in individual experience. 
One need not be discouraged because he cannot find ad- 
justment at once in this greater fellowship. It is a thing 
of growth. One gradually goes beyond his community, his 
communion, his nation, and his race in most things. Why 
should he not do so in spiritual experience until he reaches 
the secret sources of the Kingdom of God and himself 
becomes an echo of the love of God? 

We ourselves are part of the tides of discouragement, 
anxiety, unreality, and selfishness. These can only be met 
by lives of intercession and thanksgiving. Both persons and 
conditions look better after we have prayed for them. The 
processes for the triumph of righteousness are already in 
permanent action. We discover that, as Goethe so well 
says: “Everything transitory is parable.’ The outward 
and visible are temporary and are themselves a succession 
of parables, from which we are to learn the lessons of 
reality, as long ago Christ gave his parables to illustrate 
living truths. God’s goodness is stronger than man’s sin. 
The established habit of intercession and thanksgiving is 
the remedy for the unrest in human experience. 

I have purposely quoted from many books, giving the 
author, the title, and the publisher, as an aid for further 
study of this great subject, whose frontiers have been 
barely touched by this little volume. 


Baltimore, Md. 
7] 


HAVE: YOU SACGAS [Eire 


Everybody should have a castle, built so high upon 
the mountain peaks of the mind that the meaner self 
cannot climb to its heights, and so fortified that the 
approaches are guarded by white winged messengers: 
from above. 


There run occasionally for rest, out of the toil and 
vexations of life, as well as for a calm look upon 
the entangled problems of the world, that you may 
find where to lose yourself for the good of others. 


If you have not built such a castle, build it at once. 
Find the highest mountain in your mind—one of 
those that reaches highest into the blue vault of 
thought—and fortify as you build. 


If your place in life lies mostly with those minds 
that are low and marshy, whence arises the malaria 
of discontent, lust, suspicion, and unlove, build your 
castle quickly and so protect your mountain passes 
that approaches to it will be impossible except to 
yourself and the angels that minister there. 


Then you will be patient in the midst of the strife 
of the lower souls, you will do good to those who 
have wronged you, and your pity for all shall lie like 
a beam of light upon every face into which you shall 
look. The needs of every one shall come before you 
like the pathetic cry of the helpless infant, and your 
castle life shall make you a brother to all mankind. 





THE/PRIMACY OF PRAYER 


HE getting together of God and ourselves is the great 

ideal of human life. It is the fundamental basis of 

all good. It is God’s method of changing us from 
what we are to what we ought to be. Every prayer is an 
idea of God seeking expression in the human soul to make 
us want what God wants us to be. The chief activities of 
prayer lie in personal communion with God and intercession 
for others. 

In Secret—‘“ Pray to thy Father who is in secret”? (Matt. 
6:6). It is God’s invitation to shut the door with Him 
and us alone. There our true life lives. Our sin, our guilt, 
and our grief must be all uncovered before Him. ‘Those 
things that harass and hurt and soil the soul must be looked 
upon by Him and us alone. Letting out our heart’s need 
to God is true prayer. The uncovering of our soul’s sick- 
ness to our “ Father who is in secret” is to put the life of 
health into our souls. In that mystical chamber of solitude 
we learn the meaning of his Fatherhood and linger like 
children about the object of our love. 

INTERCESSION—“ Pray one for another” (Jas. 5:16). 
The most sacred exercise in which we can engage is to take 
time in beseeching God to pardon the transgressions of 
others, to comfort them with his Holy Spirit, and to give 
them eternal life. Intercessory prayer is committed to all 
Christians. It is the rule of Christian fellowship, including 
all and every part of the whole Church. The Apostle Paul 
made perpetual intercession for his fellow Christians. 
Mutual prayer for one another was the bond of unity and 
concord in the early Church. It is by praying for those 
who have hurt us and those who hate us that we learn to 
forgive them. It is the cure for personal enmities, for 
littleness of soul, and for divisions in the Church. There 
is no exercise in human experience which will bring more 
inward peace, a more universal fellowship, and make more 
permanent the Kingdom of God in the souls of men than 
praying one for another. — 

Prayer is the gateway to life; it is the pulse of the soul; 
and in its exercise we establish transactions between the 
two great realities—God and ourselves. 


[9 ] 



























CALE TOs RBG. 


O come, let us worship and bow down. 

Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that 
hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his 
people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his 
courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless 
his name. 
—Psa. 95: 6; 100: 3, 4. 


Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that 
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God; 
let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a 
high priest which cannot be touched with the feel- 
ing of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, 
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 
—Heb. 4: 14-16. 

‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by 
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your 
requests be made known unto God. 





—Phil..42'6. 


Do not pray by idle rote like pagans, for they 
suppose they will be heard the more they say; you 
must not copy them; your Father knows your needs 
before you ask Him. 

—Matt. 6:7, 8 (Moffatt). 


Our BiEssEpD Lorp hath recommended his love to 
us, as the pattern and example of our love to one 
another. As, therefore, He is continually making 
intercession for us all, so ought we to intercede 
and pray for one another. 

—WiitaAM Law. A Serious Call. 


[ 10 ] 





CALE TO, PRAYER 


MEDITATION : 

On our need of worship. 

On our need of a deeper experimental knowledge of 
God. 

On our need of a growing faith and an abounding 
love. 

On our need of patience with one another until we 
shall see in all souls the mirror of God. 


THANKSGIVING : . 

For God’s gift to the world of his only begotten Son, 
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. 

For the gift of the Holy Spirit, by whom we are 
sealed unto the day of redemption. 

For the gift of the Church, which is held under the 
purchase of Jesus Christ. 

For the gift of the Bible, by which we come to know 
Christ in the days of his flesh, and the interpreta- 
tion of those days by those nearest to Him. 

For the task in facing a world in process of redemp- 
tion. 


PENITENCE : 

For our personal sins. 

For thinking and speaking unkindly of others and our 
indifference to the needs of others. 

For our failufe to exercise our souls in intercessory 
praver for the whole Church of God. 

For our pride in theological interpretations and our 
aloofness in our relations with other Christians. 


PETITION : 

For the coming of the Kingdom of God. 

For blessing upon the whole Church. 

For practical application of the principles of Christian 
brotherhood in all human relations—religious, so- 
cial, industrial, interracial, and international. 

For the leadership of the Holy Spirit. 


[eer] 





DAY BY: DAY—PRAYER FOR DAILY 
CLAIMS 
The gates of heaven are lightly locked. 
—C. K. CHesterton. The Ballad of the White 


Horse. 





Rejoice evermore, Pray without ceasing. In every 
thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in 
Christ Jesus concerning you. 

—I Thess. 5: 16-18. 


For God is my witness, whom I serve with my 
spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that without ceasing 
I make mention of you always in my prayers. 

—Rom. I: 9. 





God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in 
ceasing to pray for you. 
—I Sam, 12: 23. 





What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, be- 
lieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 
And when ve stand praying, forgive, tf ye have 
aught against any: that your Father also which is in 
heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 

—Mark 11:24, 25. 


You do ask and you do not get it, because you ask 
with the wicked intention of spending it’ on your 
pleasures. . 


—Jas. 4: 3 (Moffatt). 


If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not 
hear me: But verily God hath heard me; He hath at- 
tended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, 
which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his 
mercy from me. 





—Psa, 66: 18-20. 


(124 


DAY BY DAY—PRAYER FOR DAILY 
CLAIMS 


For THE Kincpom oF Gop: 
For the promise of the Kingdom. 
For the reality of the Kingdom. 
For the righteousness; peace, and joy of the Kingdom. 
For the hastening of the Kingdom, 


For THE RULE OF THE Hoy Spirit: 
For the indwelling of the Spirit. 
For the intercession of the Spirit. 
For penitence for grief to the Spirit. 
For the witness of the Spirit. 


For PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS : 
For the family, near relatives, and dear friends. 
For wisdom and strength for the day’s task. 
For food and shelter. 
For those whom we shall meet or have met in the day. 





Show me thy ways, O Lord; 

Teach me thy paths. 

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me; 

For Thou art the God of my salvation; 

On Thee do I wait all the day. Amen. 
—Psa. 25: 4, 5. 


ALMIGHTY FATHER, in whom we live and move and have 
our being; Lord of life and Shepherd of all! Hear us, 
and suffer not our hearts to fail us, but give us day by 
day such grace that we may help to bring thy Kingdom. 
Make our souls to be lamps of thine, lighted by Thee and 
kept burning by Thee, until the darkness of sin shall be 
wiped out, and the light of a living faith be in the hearts 
of all for whom we Pray—ourselves and all who turn 
their faces toward Thee in prayer ; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 


[ 13 ] 

























Sunday 
PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH 


Praying always with.all prayer and supplication in 
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all persever- 
ance and supplication for all saints. 

—Eph. 6: 18. 





And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: 
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my 
voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 

—John Io: 16. 





Holy Father, keep through thine own name those 
whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, 
as We are. . . . Neither pray I for these alone, 
but for them also which shall believe on Me through 
their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, 
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may 
be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou 
hast sent Me. 





—John 17: II, 20, 21. 





If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, 
we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

—I John 1:9, Io. 


This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do 
ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. 
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, 
ye do show the Lord’s death till He come. 

—— TGF, TI 25. 20) 


By this shall all men know that ye are my dis- 
ciples, if ye have love one to another. 


—John 13: 35. 
[ 14 ] 


Sunday 
PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH 


For Its UNIty: 

For friendly attitudes between all Christians—Eastern 
Orthodox, Koman Catholics, Anglicans, Protes- 
tants, and all other Christians. 

For penitence among all Christians because of the 
universal schism. 

For rediscovery by all Christians of truth and love. 

For blessing upon all Christian unity movements and 
ventures toward unity. 

For Its SERVANTS: 

For ministers, authors, editors, artists, and all who 
seek to interpret God by voice, or pen, or brush. 

For church officials—those in high places, and those 
in local churches. 

For the faithful, the indifferent, and the new con- 
verts. 

For church workers in general, including the choir 
and friendly visitors. 

For Its SERVICES: 

For the public worship and the ordinances. 

For the evidences of spiritual growth in the lives of 
believers. 

For the Sunday-school, Christian Endeavour societies, 
guilds, etc. 

For the Young Men’s Christian Associations, Young 
Women’s Christian Associations, Bible societies, or- 
phanages, homes for the aged, incurables, etc. 





As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God. Amen. 
—Psa. 42: I. 





Most Mercirut Gop AND FATHER, we thank Thee that, 
in spite of our divisions, Thou hast loved us, and art ever 
seeking to make thyself known to us, that we may love 
each other fervently with pure minds and true hearts, 
thereby proving ourselves to he disciples of the Lord 
Jesus. Guide us that our footsteps may honour Thee, 
whose we are and whom we serve. Amen. 


[15] 


fiponday 


PRAYER FOR THOSE IN.SORROW 
AND SICKNESS 


Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dis- 
mayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; 
yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the 
right hand of my righteousness. | 

—Isa. 41: 10. 


Thus also the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 
For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, 
but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with sighs 
beyond words. And He who searches hearts knows 
what is the mind of the Spirit, because He inter- 
cedes for the holy according to the will of God. 
We know that all things work together for good to 
those who love God, to those who are called ac- 
cording to his purpose. 

—Rom. 8: 26-28 (Riverside). 


Is any among you afflicted? let pas prayers. 
Is any sick among you? let him cail for the elders & 
the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing 
him with Bal in the name of the ond: And the 
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall 
raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they 
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to 
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be 
healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous 
man availeth much. 

—Jas. 5: 13-16. 


You might almost as well try to cure disease by 
prayer without treatment, as to try to cure it by 
treatment without prayer, You must use both. 

—S1r Oniver Lonce. 


[ 16 ] 





Monday 


PRAYER FOR THOSE IN SORROW AND 
SICKNESS 


For THOSE IN SORROW : 
For persons who have had personal loss. 
For persons who have had great calamity. 
For persons who have suffered mistreatment and per- 
secution. 
For the poor, the aged, and the lonely. 


For THOSE IN SICKNESS: 
For persons who have been cured. 
For persons with general sickness. 
For persons with incurable diseases, including the 
blind, the deaf, the dumb, the insane, etc. 
For persons who are nearing the end of the earthly life. 


For HELPERS: 
For spiritual visitors to those in sorrow and sickness. 
For physicians, surgeons, and nurses. 
For hospitals and sanitariums. 
For friends and benefactors to the sick and sorrowing. 





Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; 
For my soul trusteth in Thee: 
Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, 
Until these calamities be overpast. Amen. 

—Psa. 57: I. 


O Lorn, Thou art the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land. Sorrow and sickness are abundant around us. ‘Thou 
art our refuge. Comfort those in sorrow, heal the sick, or, 
if not thy will to heal, make thy grace sufficient for them 
while they live, and give them the abundance of thy mercy 
when Thou takest them into thy rest. Bless all those who 
help to alleviate the pain of body and mind. Do for us 
what we have not the courage to do for ourselves, and may 
we be wholly thine in that way that will be most for thy 
glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


fein 


Tuesday 


PRAYER ROR THE SOCTAL 
AWAKENING 


The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the 
maker of them-all. 
—Prov. 22: 2. 


And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide 
mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many 
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of 
blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the 
evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease 
to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve 
the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the 
widow. . 

—Isa. I: I5—I7. 


Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, 
so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for 
God loveth a cheerful giver. 


—2. Cor. 9:'71 


The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He 
hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; 
He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 

—Luke 4: 18, 19. 


What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 


justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with 
thy God? 
—Micah 6: 8. 


[ 18 ] 





Tuesday 
PRAYER FOR THE SOCIAL AWAKENING 


For Socita, ADJUSTMENT: 
For the rebirth of the individual soul, and the redis- 
covery of personality. 
For the establishment of Christian democracy. 
For: prisoners and all penal institutions. 
For the social brotherhood of the world and the aboli- 
tion of war. 


For EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE: 
For better understanding and appreciation. 
For the establishment of cooperative methods. 
For definite alliances for the good of each. 
For a code of honour that will give equal dignity to 
the holder of wealth and the holder of labour. 


For THE Home LIFE: 

For the maintenance of the reality of religion in the 
home, especially prayers for fathers and mothers, 
children and servants. 

For the sanctification of marriage. 

For the right of a child to have a chance, and prayer 
for all children. 

For the home’s common debt to the community. 





Create in me a clean heart, O God; 

And renew a right spirit within me. 

Cast me not away from thy presence; 

And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Amen. 
—Psa, 51: 10, II. 





O Horny FatuHeEr, have mercy upon us, and hasten the day 
when all men shall discover that we are brothers in factory, 
shop, store, field, mine, government, and wherever else men 
are. Grant that men shall hold money lightly and shall 
cease to defraud one another, and that the stewardship of 
Divine love be held so sacredly that we shall be restless 
and ill at ease because of the world’s discontent and the 
coldness of unbrotherly attitudes; through Jesus Christ to 
whom be glory for ever. Amen. 


[ 19 ] 


Wednesday 


PRAYER FOR WORLD-WIDE 
EVANGELIZATION 


And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, 
saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in 
heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you al- 
ways, even unto the end of the world. 

—Matt. 28: 18-20 (R. V.). 


The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are 
few: pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that 
He would send forth labourers into his harvest. 

—Luke Io: 2. 


Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession. . 

—Psa. 2:8 (R. V.). 


A Christian who is not really in heart and will a 
missionary is not a Christian at all. Missionary 
effort is not a specialty of a few Christians, though, 
like every other part of Christian life, it has its 
special organs. It is an essential, never to be for- 
gotten, part of all true Christian living, and thinking, — 
and praying. . . . Come then, O breath of the 
Divine Spirit and breathe upon the dead bones of the 
Christian churches that forget that they are evan- 
gelists of the nations, that they may live and stand 
upon their feet, an exceeding great army, an army 
with banners. 

—Cuaries Gore. Epistle to the Ephesians. 


[ 20 ] 





Wednesday 


PRAYER FOR WORLD-WIDE 
EVANGELIZATION 


For Missionary ACTIVITIES : 
For all missionaries in all lands. 
For all converts to Christ through missionary labours. 
For all boards and churches that support missionary 
work, including local societies. 
For more labourers in the harvest, including the Stu- 
dent Volunteers, etc. 
For THE ForEIGN FIELD: 
For larger freedom in cooperation among Christians 
on the foreign field. 
For a unified, Christian educational system. 
For more hospitals, orphanages, homes, etc. 
For a native ministry. 
For THE Home FIELD: 
For work in the neglected centers of great cities and 
rural districts. 
For statesmanship in giving freedom for unifying 
Christian work in community centers. 
For courage to withdraw from a field that is over- 
crowded by other communions. 
For work among foreigners, and prayer for all for- 
eigners. 





I delight to do thy will, O my God: 
Yea, thy law is within my heart. Amen. 
—Psa. 40:8. 





O RicHtKous FatHer, Creator and Redeemer of the 
world, but whom the world does not know, hear us as we 
come to thank Thee that Thou hast set before us the 
harvest field of the world. Be gracious to all missionaries 
in all nations, and clothe both them and those who send 
them with brotherly kindness, in order that alliances of 
friendship may be formed which shall lend new hope to 
the fulfilment of the commission for the evangelization of 
the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


[ 21 ] 


Thursday 


PRAYER FOR CHILD TRAINING AND 
EDUCATION 


Train up a child in the way he should go: and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it. 
—Prov. 22: 6. 





Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wis- 
dom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 
—Prov. 4: 7. 


Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall 
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for 
every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh 
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

—Matt. 7:7, 8. 





If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye 
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto 
you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 

—John 15: 7, 8. 





When the fight begins within himself, 
A man’s worth something. 
—Rosert Browninc. Bishop Blougram’s 
Apology. 





The act of praying is the very highest energy of 
which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, 
with the total concentration of the faculties. The 
great mass of worldly men and of learned men are 
absolutely incapable of prayer. 

—CoLERIDGE. 


[ 22 ] 


Thursday 


PRAYER FOR CHILD TRAINING AND 
EDUCATION 


For EpuCcATIONAL, Work: 
For children to get the right start in education. 
For knowledge in spiritual and mental development. 
For all educational instructors and authors of text- 
books. 
For making the student to become sea hs rather 
than to learn something, 
For EDUCATIONAL OBLIGATION : 
For the public to recognize the right of all children to 
be educated. 
For proper financial appropriations and gifts to that 
end. 
For persons of spiritual character to occupy the posi- 
tion of teachers. 
For a large place in all education for the Great Teacher. 
For EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS : 
For all schools—city, state, church, and private. 
For healthful recreation in education. 
For establishing unifying processes for all church 
schools and colleges. 
For an education that will lead all into proper attitude 
toward classes, races, nations, and churches. 





O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: 
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, 
And to thy tabernacles. 
Then will I go unto the altar of God, 
Unto God my exceeding joy; 
Yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God 
my God. Amen. 


—Psa. 43: 3, 4. 





O Lorp Our Gon, bless the instructors in all educational 
institutions and that great multitude of students that are 
now passing through their most impressionable periods to 
maturity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen, 


[ 23 ] 


Friday 
PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS 


And hath made of one blood all nations of men 
for to dwell on all the face of the earth. 
—Acts 17: 26. 


I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, 
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made 
for all men: For kings, and for all that are in au- 
thority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable 
life in all godliness and honesty. 

—r Tim. 2: I, 2. 


There is no principle of the heart that is more ac- 
ceptable to God, than an universal fervent love to 
all mankind, wishing and praying for their: happi- 
ness; because there is no principle of the heart that 
makes us more like God, who is love and goodness 
itself, and created all beings for their enjoyment of 
happiness. 

—WILLIAM LAw. A Serious Call. 


By words and works we can but teach or influence 
a few; by our prayers we may benefit the whole 
world, and every individual of it, high and low, 
friend, stranger, and enemy. Is it not fearful then 
to look back on our past lives even in this one re- 
spect ? . 

How can we answer to ourselves for the souls who 
have, in our time, lived and died in sin . . or 
those again who have died with but doubtful signs 
of faith, the death-bed penitent, the worldly, the 
double-minded, the ambitious, the unruly, the trifling, 
the self-willed, seeing that, for what we know, we 
were ordained to influence or reverse their present 
destiny, and have not done it? 

—J. H. Newman. Parochial Sermons. 





Bach 


Friday 
PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS 


For THE NATIONS: 

For the rulers of all nations,—especially for the Presi- 
dent of the United States and the King of England 
and the rulers of the countries where we may be,— 
and all executives. 

For the law-makers and legislatures. 

For the judges and courts of justice. 

For the people. 

For INDUSTRIAL, CLASS, AND RActAL, AFFAIRS: 

For persons engaged in agriculture, merchandising, 
commerce, manufactures, trades, professions, art, 
inventions, and discoveries. 

For all brain and hand toilers. 

For the adjustment of class and race problems. 

For peace and prosperity by the way of Christ. 

For INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: 

For all movements that help toward friendly attitudes 
among the nations. 

For international conferences dealing with economic 
problems, etc. 

For adjusting international disputes by reason rather 
than by physical force. 

For the support of, the international court by an inter- 
national conscience. 





Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, 
And the people whom He hath chosen for his own 
inheritance. 
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear 
Him, 
Upon them that hope in his mercy. Amen. 
—Psa. 33: 12, 18. 





O Lorp, we beseech Thee for our nation and for all the 
nations of the world that they may grow toward Thee as 
the plants grow toward the sun. Give to all peoples minds 
schooled for fellowship with Thee, when the kingdoms of 
this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and his 
Christ. Amen. 


[ 25 ] 


Saturday 
PRAYER FOR PERSONAL INTERESTS 


For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, 
and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the 
face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 

—I Pet. 3: 12. 





Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I 
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If 
ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If 
ye love Me, keep my commandments. 

—John 14: 13-15. 





Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done 
this evil in thy sight. . 
—Psa. 51: 4. 





There is nothing that makes us love a man so 
much as praying for him; and when you can once 
do this sincerely for any man, you have fitted your 
soul for the performance of everything that is kind 
and civil toward him. ny 

—WiiaAM Law. A Serious Call. 





Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by 
prayer 

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy 
voice 

Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 

For what are men better than sheep or goats 

That nourish a blind life within the brain, 

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 

Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 

For so the whole round earth is every way 

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
—ALFRED TENNYSON. The Passing of Arthur. 


[ 26 | 


Saturday 


PRAYER? FOR»PERSONAL INTERESTS 


For INDIVIDUALS: 
For friends and neighbours and benefactors. 
For enemies. 
For associates. 
For helpers in general and in special tasks. 


For Co6PERATIVE MOVEMENTS: 
For those that are local—church, city, etc. 
For those that are wider—state, national, and inter- 
national. 
For the leaders and workers in them. 
For their benefactors. 


For SELF: 
For the things accomplished and the things in which 
we have failed. 
For the things that have hurt. 
For financial adjustments. 
For health of soul.and body. 





Thou wilt show me the path of life: 
In thy presence is fulness of joy; 
At thy right hand there are pleasures for 
evermore. Amen. 
—Psa. 16: II. 





Our FATHER, we know not what to ask of Thee. Thou 
knowest what we need before we ask. Give us only that 
which Thou thinkest best. Cast us down or lift us up. 
We would have thy will done in us and in all those persons 
and movements that have our personal interests, and so we 
simply present ourselves before Thee and say, Thou art 
our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed by thy name. 
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in us; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


[ 27 ] 


FAMILY WORSHIP’ 


Few things give more pleasure to our heavenly 
Father than for a family to pray to Him together. 
The best way, of course, is for every one to kneel 
down. But if that cannot be done, make the chil- 
dren stand, or sit, at the table with their eyes shut, 
before they begin breakfast, and after they have 
finished supper, while the father or mother conducts 
the brief service. . 

—A. H. McNensr. A Daily Offering. 





Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them. 
—Matt, 18: 20. 





He [Jesus] took Peter and John and James, and 
went up into a mountain to pray. 
—Luke 9: 28. 





Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth my sayings, 
and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: 
He is like a man which built a house, and digged 
deep, and laid the foundation on a rock; and when 
the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon 
that house, and could not shake it; for it was 
founded upon a rock, 

—Luke 6: 47, 48. 


*Tf there is difficulty in getting the family together, 
that difficulty may be obviated by having a brief 
service at the breakfast table or at the evening meal. 
Only a few minutes need to be consumed by such a 
service, so that no one could object because of the 
lack of time. There are numerous manuals for this 
service, such as Great Souls at Prayer, by Mary W. 
Tileston, published by R. H. Allenson, Racquet 
Court, Fleet St., London, E. C., or Little, Brown & 
Co., Boston, $1.00; The Daily Altar, by H. L. Willett 
and C. C. Morrison, Christian Century, Chicago, 
$1.50; and God’s Minute, by 365 Ministers and Lay- 
men, Vir Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 50 cents. 


[ 2& ] 


FAMILY WORSHIP 


A Morninc PRAYER: 

ALMIGHTY Gop, who day by day renewest the face of 
nature, giving back again that which was lost; and who 
givest the bread of the body by which we are restored 
unto the vigour of life! Grant unto us, this day, such 
holy thoughts and pious meditations upon the words of 
the wise of olden times, and the words of thy Son our 
Lord, that they may be to us as food and water re- 
newing our strength, deepening our hope, and fitting us 
for the struggle to make the spiritual life supreme. 
Hear us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

—GEorGE Dawson. Prayers. 





AN EVENING PRAYER: 

O God, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came to give 
us the peace which the world cannot give, let thy peace 
rest upon our souls to-night, and the souls of those 
who love Thee in all the nations of the earth: through 
the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

—A. H. McNetie. A Daily Offering. 





A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING BEFORE MEALS: 

O Tord, we pray for thy presence at this meal. 
If we have ever gained our bread by injustice, or eaten 
it in heartlessness, cleanse our life and give us a spirit 
of humility and love, that we may be worthy to sit at 
the common table of humanity in the great house of our 
Father. Amen. 

—WALTER RAuscHENBUSCH. Prayers of the Social 

Awakening. — 





A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AFTER MEALS: 

BLEssED LorD, as we live continually upon thy bounty, 
so may we always live to thy glory: through Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 

—The Tent and the Altar. 


[ 29 ] 





PRAYER PERIOD AT PENTECOST 





The significance of Pentecost is emphasized by the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day (Acts 2). 
For ten days preceding that day, they “all con- 
tinued with one accord in prayer and supplication” 
(Acts 1:14). . It. was a period of joyfulness. It 
may be made much more so in our present day ex- 
perience. From Ascension to Pentecost many Chris- 
tians in all parts of the world meet together for 
union in prayer. 


























And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith 
God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: 
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, ~ 
and your young men shall see visions, and your old 
men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and 
on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of 
my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show 
wonders in heaven above, and signs .in the earth 
beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The 
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord 
come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

—Joel 2: 28-32; Acts 2: 17-21. 





For the promise is unto you, and to your children, 
and to all that are afar off, even as many as the 


Lord our God shall call. 






—Acts 2: 39. 


PRAYER PERIOD AT PENTECOST 
First Day: 
For an Understanding of God (Psa. 100: 3). 
SEcoND Day: 
For an Understanding of Jesus Christ (John 14:6). 
Tuirp Day: 
For an Understanding of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8: 16). 
FourtH Day: 
For an Understanding of the Kingdom of God 
(Matt. 6: 33). 
FirtaH Day: . 
For an Understanding of the Cross (Phil. 2:8). 
SrxtH Day: 
For an Understanding of Discipleship (John 13: 35). 
SEVENTH Day: 
For an Understanding of Penitence (1 John 1:9). 
EicutH Day: 
For an Understanding of Thanksgiving 
(1 Thess. 5: 18). 
NintH Day: 
For an Understanding of Witnessing (Matt. 28: 19, 20). 
TentH Day: 
For an Understanding of Unity (John 17: 21). 





O Lorp, by whose life we are made alive and by whose 
mercy we are blessed, live in us. Forgive our negligence. 
Blot out all our sins. Preserve in us a living faith. Shed 
abroad thy light in the hearts of all who pray. Make 
brotherhood among us a reality. Stir in our souls obedience 
to thy long ago given commission to make disciples of all 
the nations. So command us that we shall have the sense 
to know that the winning of the nations is dependent upon 
the unity of the Church. Comfort us with thy Spirit and so 
prepare our hearts that Thou mayest not be afraid to trust 
us with thy Spirit’s power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 


fam] 


“Tart up your hearts ”—‘ We lift them up ”— 
Ah me! 
I cannot, Lord, lift up my heart to Thee: 
Stoop, lift it up, that where Thou art I too may be. 


“Give Me thy Heart ’—I would not say Thee nay, 
But have no power to keep or give away 
My heart: stoop, Lord, and take it to thyself to-day. 


Stoop, Lord, as once before, ncw once anew 

Stoop, Lord, and hearken, Heaney Lord, and do, 

And take my, will, and Hie my heart, and take me 
too. 


—CuristiIna G. Rossert1 (Redeeming . 
the Time—S. P. C. K.). 


it 


[ 32 ] 


V 
Pits OO L.Or PRA Yk 


\ ), Y HEN one of the disciples of Christ said 
to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as 

John also taught his disciples” (Luke 

Ii: 1), it was the knock at the door for the opening 
of the school of prayer. Through the years, God 
had taken his children here and there and put them 
in the school of prayer, but now the time had come 
when the school was to be opened to all. Christ, 
at once, gave the first lesson and, after all these 
years, not many of us have learned it. That first 
lesson is that God is Father and we must, uncondi- 
tionally, both reverence Him and put Him and his 
interests first, and: ourselves and our interests 
second. It has always been difficult to establish in 
our attitudes that God is, really and eternally, 
Father, and it is still difficult; but our hearts must 
show this faith and our courtesy must manifest 
itself in making his interests first and in uniting our 
wills with his will. This is not only the politeness 
of prayer. It is the wisdom of prayer—(1) God is 
really Father; (2) we must reverence Him in his 
Living Presence; (3) we must recognize the King- 
dom within us in the process of making; and (4) 
we must unify our wills with his will to complete 

ae 


THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER 


his work of creation. These principles are funda- 
mental in spiritual experience. 

What Christ gave us, in the opening of what is 
commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, is an interpreta- 
tion of the first of the ten commandments. Christ 
was constantly reiterating it. “Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God, and his righteousness”. (Matt. 
6:33). God is love; He is neither untrue nor un- 
kind; therefore, He must be first. He knows our 
needs (Matt. 6:32). His interests include us, and 
He needs our heart and mind and will to bring to- 
completion the unfinished creation. The things that 
Hes doing and what He wants us to become are of 
more importance than our little plans and passing 
needs, be they ever so big in our own eyes. | 

He could not have left us a more satisfactory 
example of this idea than He did, when, in teaching 
us to pray, He said: “ Our Father who art in heaven. ° 
Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Thus far, — 
which includes nearly half of the prayer, it is con- 
cerned with God and his interests. Then, concern- 
ing ourselves—‘ Give us this day our daily bread, 
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those 
who trespass against us. Lead us not into tempta- 
tion, but deliver us from evil.” Then, back to-God 
and his interests again—‘‘ For thine is the kingdom 
and the power and the glory for ever and ever. 
Amen.” Although this last was an addition to the 
original text, and is, therefore, omitted in many 

[ 34 ] 


THE SCGHOOL-OFR PRAYER 


translations ; nevertheless, it is not inappropriate, in- 
asmuch as it emphasizes the place of God. 

The lesson is that of humility. It was among the 
first lessons that God taught the Hebrews (Deut. 
8:2, 3). It was voiced by the prophets as one of 
the fundamental principles in proper living (Mic. 
6:8). Both Old and New Testaments affirm God’s 
reception of the humble (Prov. 3:34; Jas. 4:6). 
Christ repeatedly taught that exaltation comes by 
the way of humility (Luke 14:11), and Paul cites 
the case of Christ as fulfilling perfectly this sublime 
idea (Phil. 2:6-11) and exhorts Christians to its 
practices (Coli, 3 */¥2);. 

Only the humble soul can have communion with 
God. There is no other pathway of approach to 
the Living Presence. . Out of humility the Psalmist 
says: 

Pour out your heart before Him: 
God is a refuge for us (62:8). 


The one way to get rid of sin is to pour it out before 
God,—all sinful thoughts and actions,—making a 
complete confession of everything. We. should 
prove to Him that we are committed to the cleansing 
of the heart, for God is a refuge for all. 

The Psalmist again says: 


I have set the Lord always before me (16: 8). 
As wonderful as these words were in the experience 
of the Hebrews, how much more wonderful is it in 


the experience of Christians to find in Christ the 
[ 35] 


EHE SCHOOL, OF PRAYER 


Living Way to the Father, having Him always be- 
fore us, 
And the Psalmist again says: 


Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul (25 1). 


The lifting of the soul to God is an experience tran- 
scending in importance all other human activities. 
It is the touch of life upon life. It is the meeting 
place of Father and child, declaring an eternal kin- 
ship. 

These three figures beautifully express the mean- 
ing of prayer—pouring out of the heart, setting the 
Lord before us, and the lifting up of our souls unto 
Him. No more picturesque and correct description 
. of prayer can be found in any age, nor in any litera- 
ture. They tell what prayer is without dropping to 
the level of a definition. They place it in those 
great spiritual realms of the poetic and picturesque.” 
They bring into mutual association huimility, resolu- 
tion, and the consciousness of God. These are the | 
essential elements of prayer. Combine these and 
prayer is, at once, simplified: but our difficulty lies 
in bringing these together. Pride halts humility, 
indecision halts resolution, and self-consciousness 
halts the consciousness of God. Nevertheless, we 
pray. 

It is a natural and universal instinct. Prayers 
are among the earliest expression of language. 
Mothers in all ages have taught their children to 
pray as they have taught them to eat and to walk. 

[ 36 J 


THE SCHOO OF PRAYER 


Although natural and simple, the experiences of 
prayer have been attended with many difficulties. 
To make prayer better—and the making of better 
prayers is more important than the making of many 
prayers—we meet the same difficulties that we find 
in attempting to attain to proficiency in music, or in 
languages, or in any of the trades or occupations of 
life. All these things are natural, but proficiency 
comes at the cost of labour—usually hard labour. 
“The call to prayer means a call to work, not a 
summons to set going a machine, which needs 
neither brains nor heart. It is a call to gather up 
all the forces of the soul, and to summon them to 
the intensest activity. It is, indeed, the highest 
exercise to which man can be called.” ’ 

The fact that prayer is natural and simple in- 
dicates that its development comes by skillful per- 
severance in its practice—not finding beautiful 
language, but practicing humility, resolution, and 
the consciousness of God. Multiplying times to 
pray, or resorting to devotional books, or searching 
out our personal needs, are superficial and secondary 
methods in removing difficulties in the way of 
prayer. We must learn the meekness and the low- 
liness of Christ. This is the method to which He 
invites us. “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek 

*James Hastings. The Christian Doctrine of Prayer 
(Clark). 

[ 37 ] 


THE SCHOOL, OF PRAYER 


and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is 
light” (Matt. 11: 28-30). The secret lies here. 
Consequently, another’s knowledge of God is of the 
same kind of help to us as another’s knowledge of 
music. Each must learn for himself. 

The consciousness of God as the Living Father 
is the glory of prayer. It is this that quickens 
prayer and gives direction to it. The emphasis 
must be on Him—not on ourselves. It is our meet- 
ing ground with Him. There is a personal attitude 
on his part, or He could not hear and answer; there 
is a personal attitude on the part of ourselves, else 
there could be no sense of humility, no resolution, 
and no pouring out of the heart, no setting of the 
Lord always before us, and no lifting up of the 
soul to the Living Father. There is, then, a per- 
sonal consciousness on the part both of God and of 
ourselves in our approach toward each other. But | 
consciousness of God must not be associated with. 
self-consciousness, which is destructive of truth and 
deadens our consciousness of God. The con- 
sciousness of our need may weaken prayer; our 
helplessness may drive us to pray; neither of these, 
however, is prayer. Prayer is the voice of reality 
within us, holding conversation with the Living 
Father, directing heart, mind, and will toward Him. - 

It is not the language of prayer that gives it 
force. It is the attitude of the soul toward God. 
The words of prayer may be very beautiful, but the 

[ 38 ] 


THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER 


prayer itself may be very rude. The prayer may be 
read, or it may be an extemporaneous supplication ; 
but, if there is no inner voice speaking to God, it is 
not prayer. The posture of the body is of second- 
ary consequence. Belief is the level from which the 
soul comes naturally into the Living Presence. 
Then God and his interests are first, and the prayer 
conforms us truly to the Divine laws as the stars in 
their courses and the ocean in its tides. 

In the school of prayer we must always keep near 
the great Teacher. It is profitable to go carefully 
through the four Gospels and classify all his state- 
ments and actions regarding prayer ; then, test them, 
not once, but many times. Make our inner selves 
the laboratory. Perhaps it would be better to use 
the term temple, for we are the temple of the Living 
God, and God dwells in us and walks in us and calls 
us his own (II Cor. 6:16). Our problem is not 
without; it is within us. In spite of this fact God 
sometimes seems to be absent. Belief in an 
absentee God is the source of sin. But it is not true 
that He is absent, for He is always with us and 
within us. Nevertheless, in his seeming absence, 
we cry out with Job: 

Oh that I knew where I might find Him! 

That I might come even to his seat! 

I would set my cause in order before Him, 

And fill my mouth with arguments (23: 3, 4, R. V.). 
There are times when our prayers should be strong 
pleadings, sustained by Scripture, history, and ex- 

[ 30 ] 


THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER 


perience. He pleads with us, saying: “ Come now, 
and let us reason together” (Isa, 1:18): we, in 
turn, plead with Him, saying in the language of the 
Jerusalem taxgatherer: “God be merciful to me a 
sinner’ (Luke 18:13). We must know each other 
—God and ourselves. 

Human friendship is based on knowledge and 
congeniality ; it is likewise so in friendship between 
God and ourselves. God must be known as the 
Living Father by personal experience. James 
Hastings well says: “ We get to know our friends 
better by conversation and familiar intercourse. 
And so shall we get to know God better by convers- 
ing with Him. But we are very apt to forget that, 
if the conversation is to do this work, it must not 
be one-sided; and our ordinary conversation with 
God is terribly one-sided. We insist on doing all . 
the talking ourselves. We go straight through our 
prayer, without taking breath, and then get up and 
run away, without leaving a moment to God in 
which He may talk to us. It is no wonder that 
such prayers do not much advance our knowledge 
of Him, to whom we speak, and to whom we refuse 
to listen.” * | 

A school means discipline. We should set our- 
selves to the practice of self-training in prayer as 
we practice in music, or in the apprenticeship of a © 


“James Hastings. The Christian Doctrine of Prayer 
(Clark). 


[ 40 ] 


THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER 


trade. On the other hand, if we resort to the 
sloven method of going at it by snatches, we will 
never be proficient, whether it be prayer, or music, 
or a trade. There must be deliberate, painstaking 
care. We will frequently be discouraged in our 
practicing of humility, resolution, and the conscious- 
ness of God, as we are in the practice of other 
things that have to do with proficiency. But they 
who care will continue to pursue their tasks. 
These are the world builders, whether they be work- 
ing in the field of physical or spiritual values. “To 
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree 
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of 
God * GRevy. 2:7). 

In the study of prayer we are for ever face to 
face with the two great spiritual facts — In- 
carnation and Redemption. ‘In one Jesus made the 
complete identification of God with us and, in the 
other, He released God’s free gift of eternal life. 
The many theories about these facts may differ, and 
necessarily do differ, but their difference need not 
confuse us, for the facts are as sure as the sun. 
Both our experience and hope are grounded in them. 
No theories can take them away from us. They are 
as much a part of us as memory, reason, and ex- 
pectation. In the contemplation of them the con- 
sciousness of God is deepened in us and prayer be- 
comes the first of faith’s activities, whence we ven- 
ture in new discoveries from which come spiritual 
refreshment in a stronger faith and a more compre- 

[ 47 ] 


THE SCHOOL -:OE PRAY ER 


hensive love. The one thing which distinguishes 
Christianity from other religions is the kind of re- 
demption it offers to mankind, which is a redemp- 
tion based on reconciliation. In other religions re- 
nunciation is first and reconciliation follows: 
whereas, in Christianity, reconciliation is first and 
renunciation gets its power and direction from 
reconciliation, which Christianity offers. Prayer is 
the channel of its accomplishment. 

Prayer is the source of all godliness. Out of its 
school we are graduated for waiting service in the 
Kingdom of God. We have not been left to 
stumble in the dark. The Light of the world is 
here. Christ says: “He that hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father” (John 14:9). He has simplified 
three great experiences—(1) Repentance, teaching 
us to be unashamed of it; (2) Confession, teaching 
us the faithfulness and justice of God in forgiving 
all sin; and (3) Perseverance, teaching us of the 
possibilities of growth into the likeness of Himself. - 
Undergirding these is belief, growing with each 
adventure. These experiences give reality to the 
pouring out of the heart, to the setting of the Lord 
always before us, and to the lifting up of the soul 
to the Living Father, who loves us and is ever call- 
ing us into the school of prayer. 


[ 42 ] 


O Tuovu TEACHER OF MANKIND, grant us an en- 
trance into the school of prayer that we may learn 
the wondrous art of tarrying behind the closed 
door with thyself and us alone. Teach us humility, 
resolution, and the consciousness of thyself that 
we may always make Thee first in our thoughts. 
Thou didst press upon us the atmosphere of thy 
heart to make us want what Thou wantest us to 
have. Neither the consciousness of our needs nor 
the helplessness of our condition is presented to 
Thee for our prayer, but out of humility of heart 
and mind and will, we lift up our souls to Thee, and 
call Thee Father, confessing our penitence, rejoic- 
ing in our fellowship, and believing that Thou wilt 
supply our needs and sustain us in our helplessness ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


[ 43 ] 


O Gop, help me to believe in Thee. I need Thee to keep 
me loyal to the great realities of truth and goodness, of 
love and righteousness, to strengthen my will for the ful- 
filment of every duty, and to enable me to disbelieve my 
fears and to trust my hopes. Reveal thyself to me as my 
soul’s Companion and Friend. Only let me know _ that 
Thou art with me, and I will face the worst that may be- 
fall, knowing that all things—suffering and adversity as 
well as joy and well-being—work together for good to 
them that love Thee. Set me free from every restraining 
care and anxiety, that I may give myself without reserve 
to the doing of thy will, and so come to know thy peace. 
Amen. 

—SAMUEL McComs (A Book of Prayers—Dodd, Mead 
riGo;)? 


[ 44 ] 


VI 
THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


OD is real. Man is real. It would be un- 
(5 thinkable to suppose that the Creator had 

provided no method of communication be- 
tween these two great realities, but instead both 
were forever to remain in isolated splendour. Con- 
sequently, the reality of prayer is a natural con- 
clusion. From the earliest times men have prayed. 
In these times the greatest interpreters of life are 
those who pray. 

We cannot use prayer like we use the telephone 
and the telegraph, by pushing a button or ringing a 
bell. The machinery may be perfectly constructed, 
yet if there is some broken connection,—although 
it may be only the: width of a hair,—neither the 
telephone nor the telegraph will be able to command 
the service of electricity. Science has found the 
physical law in one instance; faith must find the 
spiritual law in the other instance. These laws are 
similar—so similar that we are being constantly re- 
minded of a close analogy between them. Both are 
Divine. The face of the earth has been changed 
by Christianity, the power of advance of which has 
depended upon prayer. This has been done, too, 
with a mild and defective form of Christianity. 
If faith had been as venturesome in the field of 

[ 45 ] 


THE REALITY GE PRAYER 


spiritual experience as the scientific working has 
been in the physical field, our material civilization 
would not only rest upon a more permanent spiri- 
tual basis, but the ideals of the Kingdom would be 
nearer their fulfilment. The spiritual, however, has 
been difficult and costly. But, even as it is, the 
desire for prayer is foremost in the reality of human 
experience. 

It was certainly a great force in the life of Christ 
and in the lives of the saints. of the Scriptures 
and of history. Miss Maude Royden says: 
“Prayer is, at least, as real and living a force in the 
world as any of the great forces revealed to us by 
Natural Science. It seems to most of us capricious 
and unreliable for the same reason that, for ex- 
ample, electricity seemed so to a world which knew 
it only as flashes of lightning or sparks from a 
black cat: namely, that we do not understand its 
nature or its laws. When we do so, we shall be — 
able to pray with power, as Christ did and all the 
saints in their degree. We shall share his perfect 
confidence and we shall understand that we ‘ have 
not because we ask not.’”* It is to-day the most 
urgent field of exploration and adventure. Both in 
science and commerce faith is making such wonder- 
ful ventures as to place its results almost in the 
realm of the miraculous, while in religion faith is 
less free. It shies at ventures, leaving spiritual ex- 





oe Maude Royden. Prayer as a Force (Putnam). 
[ 46 ] 


THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


perience without those results that should exceed 
the results in either science or commerce. 

The reality does not rest upon our needs nor our 
desires, but upon God. Prayer is God’s breathing 
in the soul of man, sometimes expressed in petition, 
or in penitence, or in thanksgiving, or in meditation, 
or in intercession, or in adoration. None of these 
are in themselves prayer. They are the channels 
through which prayer finds its outlets to God. 
Prayer uses these as we use the multiplication table, 
or grammar. Back of these are the sources of 
prayer and those sources are in God. It is inter- 
estingly true that as these spiritual impressions come 
from God, there is, likewise, a spiritual power that 
takes our ignorant prayers and unspoken longings 
and translates them into Divine idealism in the heart. 
of God. “Thus also the Spirit helps us in our 
weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as 
we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with 
sighs beyond words” (Rom. 8: 26).’ 

Prayer puts us in fellowship with all the saints— 
that vast multitude that has finished the battle— 
who, by the Spirit of God, have overcome every 
foe, and are now in unobstructed fellowship with 
Christ. Paul was able to say: “ Having a desire 
to depart, and to be with Christ; which is 
ameenerietomeacr ai, 1 323)) » And: then, that 
other multitude in all communions, in all parts 


* Riverside Translation. 
[A7e] 


THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


of the world, to whom angels minister in order 
that all may overcome by the power of Christ as 
Christ Himself was ministered to by angels 
(Mark 1:13; Luke 22:43). “Are they [angels] 
not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 
1:14). Prayer brings all ages into fellowship; more 
influential in permanent results than the telegraph or 
telephone, which has transformed the present age 
into a whispering gallery and which is a parable of 
the wide function of prayer. We pray to God. 
We are mysteriously influenced by the prayers of 
all the past and all the present. The communion of 
saints is real. | 

Nevertheless, multitudes of Christians are 
haunted by the unreal in prayer. They go through 
the form and, perhaps, never miss a day in saying 
their prayers, but saying prayers and praying are 
two different things. Prayer is friendship between 
two personalities, and the law of friendship binds 
to each the consciousness of the other, the knowl- 
edge of the other, and personal transactions be- 
tween each other. 

The reality of prayer is dependent upon the de- 
gree of our codperation with God. We can block 
every approach by refusing or neglecting to cultivate 
faith. ‘‘ Without faith it is impossible to please 
Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that 
He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that 
diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Likewise, re- 

[ 48 ] 


THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


fusing to break away our attachment for some one 
sin. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord 
will not hear me” (Psa. 66:18). Unfaith or one 
sin knowingly unrepented of is sufficient t@prevent 
our experiencing the reality of prayer. Faith must 
be cultivated and sins must be abandoned. 

Words are useful to us, but in prayer words are 
not the primary things. Back of all words, and that 
which speaks louder than words, is the attitude of 
the soul toward God. Sometimes it is difficult for 
us to know our own attitude. Sometimes the words 
we use in prayer are far beyond what we are really 
willing to pay the price for. Sometimes our minds 
are so divided or confused that we are not sure of 
what we want. All these things are human con- 
ditions, common the world over and through all 
ages, but that does not justify our indefiniteness, 
thoughtlessness, or indecision. But back of all 
words is the real person—frequently so far back 
that the person does not comprehend himself. 
Nevertheless, it is the voice of reality that God hears 
above the voice of audibility. The transaction is in 
that realm rather than any other. There the 
prayer is answered. Perhaps, we do not recognize 
the answer. But it remains true now as of old: 
“According to your faith be it unto you” 
(Matt. 9:29). 

One of the greatest hindrances against experienc- 
ing the reality of prayer is our self-will in trying to 
get God to do what we want Him to do,—purely a 

[ 49 ] 


THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


pagan idea,—instead of surrendering in absolute 
obedience to Him, thereby having Him to do what 
He wants to do with us.. A friendship in which we 
are ever trying to get something and never giving 
anything is artificial. It is not a question, How 
many prayers has God answered for us? But 
rather in our friendship with God, How much 
have we grown like Him? We may lose property, 
social position, health, and loved ones, during which 
time we prayed earnestly for God’s help; but, if in 
all this defeat and sorrow, we have grown toward 
God, our growth is the evidence of the reality of 
prayer, for the building of souls on the foundations 
of God is the greatest thing in human experience. 
We think of mankind as one, however varied and 
separated by great barriers; and, at the same time, 
we think of mankind as the instrument of God’s 
expression, a kind of medium through which God 
speaks and reveals Himself. A. H. McNeile says: 
“Personality has been defined as ‘the capacity 
for fellowship,’ that is the capacity for self-com- 
munication to persons, communion, mutual re- 
sponse, mutual indwelling, real union, with persons. 
So that I am able to say—God is in me; God is in 
you. But remember, all idea of locality must be 
avoided. It is not a little bit of God inside me, and 
a little bit of God inside you, any more than we can 
say that there is a little bit of music inside one 
violin and a little bit of music inside another violin. 
It is God, the one infinite reality, who reveals Him- 
[ 50 ] ; 


THE REALITY OF PRAYER 


self as physical life in all nature, and as personal 
character in man. The twofold truth is stated in 
the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: ‘ All things 
were made by Him, and without Him was not any- 
thing made that was made; in Him was Life.’ 
Thus far the evangelist describes reality in Nature. 
But then comes the leap to the higher plane: ‘ The 
Life was the Light of men.’ That is what makes 
all mankind one. As individuals, men are only in- 
struments, symbols, ‘parables, to use Goethe’s 
word, of the Infinite and the Eternal. But as per- 
sonal, mankind is one communion and fellowship. 
And the more we can annul our individual Self, 
the more free we are to realize our oneness with the 
whole. He that loseth his Self shall find it.’’* 

Only in the reality of prayer is self lost. But 
‘prayer is not merely conforming to an established 
custom, be it public-or private. It is not a ritual; it 
is an experience. In its practice we become a part 
of the great circle of God and human souls, both in 
the past and in the present. Prayer is to us either a 
matter of little consequence or of great value, de- 
pending entirely upon the degree of our experimen- 
tation in it. The bigness of prayer dawns upon us 
only when we have had a great experience in its 
practice. 

Take a simple illustration like the hyacinth. 
Neither a botanist nor a biologist could tell us what 


7A. H. McNeile. Self-Training in Prayer (Longmans). 
[ 51 ] 


THE ‘REALITY OF PRAYER 


a hyacinth really is. Not until we have seen it for 
ourselves do we really know. Books and sermons are 
to prayer what the botanist and biologist are to the 
hyacinth. The reality of prayer must come out of 
experience. In the fellowship of the personal soul 
with the personal God prayer flows out of petition 
and thanksgiving and such like channels into the 
expanding of the human life through the processes 
of the Divine fellowship. 

In our thought of God as personal and ourselves 
as persons, we are brought to the reality of com- 
munion and fellowship between Him and us. Our 
approaches may be defective, due to our ignorance 
and self-will, but the approaches have gone on 
through the centuries as positively as the rising and 
the setting of the sun, so that the history of prayer 
is as old as mankind, and the benefits of prayer 
have been the oldest heritage of the race. 


[ 52 ] 


O Lorp oF Love, Thou art real. Deepen our ex- 
periences in the reality of our communion with 
Thee, lest we disappoint both ourselves and Thee, 
and lose the aliveness of prayer. Touch the arti- 
ficial and unreal in us that all barrenness may be 
supplanted by things that bloom. Thou preparest 
the heart; then prepare our hearts by such sincerity 
and humility of approaches that all vain phrases 
and artificial attitudes may give way to vividity and 
reality. Weneed Thee. Breathe into us heavenly 
desires and may no resistance of ours hinder the 
work of thy free Spirit within us, for the sake of 
Him, who is the Lord of Life. Amen. 


Tuou who wouldest have every man provide for his own 
house, and who hatest the unnatural, 

Remember, Lord, my kinsmen according to the flesh; 
grant me to speak peace concerning them, and to seek 
their good. | 


Thou who wouldest that our righteousness should exceed 
the righteousness of sinners, 

Grant me, Lord, to love those who love me, my own 
friends, and my father’s friends, and never to forsake 
my friends’ children. 


Thou who wouldest that we should overcome evil with 
good, and pray for those who persecute us, 

Have pity on mine enemies, Lord, as on myself; and bring 
them together with me to thy heavenly Kingdom. 


Thou who grantest the prayers of thy servants one for. 
another, } 

Remember, Lord, for good, and pity all those who re- 
member me in their prayers, all those whom I have 
promised to remember in mine. 


—W. H. Frere anp A. L. ILtincwortH (Sursum 
Corda—Mowbray). 


[ 54 ] 


VII 
THE PROFESSION OF PRAYER 


Pr “HERE are instances of individuals giving 
themselves to prayer, as of the Psalmist, 
who said: “I give myself unto prayer” 

(Psa. 109: 4); but not until the Apostles of Christ 

gave themselves continually to prayer do we find 

prayer passing into a profession. “It is not reason 
that we should leave the word of God, and serve 
tables (meals),”* said the Apostles; “but we wil! 
give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the 

ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2, 4). 

Every theological institution should have a chair 
in the study of and training in prayer, including 
spiritual discipline and “the exploration of the in- 
terior life of prayer and union with God in all its 
wondrous heights and depths.” It is as important 
to have such a chair as it is to have a chair in New 
Testament exegesis or homiletics. If it were a mat- 
ter of rating, it would not be out of place to say 
that such a chair should have equal consideration 
with the chair of New Testament exegesis and 
homiletics. But we have treated prayer about as 
we have treated the sex problem; that is, it is a 


*Moffatt’s Translation. 
[55 ] 


THE PROFESSION OF PRAYER 


delicate matter, not to be discussed too intimately, 
but each must stumble ahead and find out for him- 
self. This policy in prayer has made both the pulpit 
and the pew weak in prayer, and frequently has 
given to our ministry a leanness and superficiality, 
irrespective of its theological training; and, in the 
sex problem, it has given us an inexcusable social 
scourge. One has to contend as severely for the 
place of prayer in his life as a sensual nature has to 
contend for purity in his thought and conduct. 
Prayer must be taken out of its formal setting— 
however elegant our prayers may be—and be made 
a living experience, before we can be brought to 
command our wills to give ourselves to prayer. 
Having done this, we might write on the fly-leaf of 
our Bible, as John Wesley did on his: “ Live To- 
day.” Christ teaches us to live day by day. The 
past is gone. To-day is God’s gift to us, whether 
it be a day of storm or sunshine. To-morrow may 
never come, and that is immaterial. In the event; 
however, that it does come, having lived right 
to-day, we are better prepared to live properly 
to-morrow. ! 
The day may begin with the morning sacrifice. 
In his exhortation, Paul says: “I beseech you, 
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable’ service” (Rom. 
12:1). It is beautifully appropriate to rise from 
our beds with the thought of God and with the pres- 
[ 56 ] 


> 


THE PROFESSION: OF + BRAYER 


entation to the Lord of our bodies as “a living 
sacrifice,’ saying as we do so: “I laid me down and 
slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me”’ 
(Psa. 3:5); and, in the evening when we retire, to 
say some such passage as, “1 will both lay me down 
in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me 
dwell in safety” (Psa. 4:8). 

A world-wide practice among many is to keep the 
Morning Watch. It may be very early. Of Christ 
it was said: “In the morning, rising up a great 
while before day, He went out, and departed into a 
solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35). 
It may be later in the day, only it should be before 
breakfast, and especially before reading the morning 
paper. Having spent that time in waiting before 
God, by Bible reading, meditation, and prayer, we 
are better prepared to adjust ourselves through the ~ 
day to God’s children, whom we meet in business 
and social circles. John R. Mott says: “In the 
light of experience and observation one may say 
with conviction that there is no habit more calcu- 
lated to preserve the sense of reality in faith, to 
maintain and augment spiritual energy, and to pre- 
pare one for recognizing and heeding dangers and 
opportunities than that of beginning each day inthis 
way.” 

There will be times when we are hurried; but, if 


*John R. Mott. Confronting Young Men With the 
Living Christ (Association). 


[57 ] 


THE PROFESSION? OF SPR Aw Be 


we rise earlier in order to give sufficient time to our 
Morning Watch, we will discover in ourselves an 
assurance that we could hardly have possessed with- 
out such a practice. | 

The principles of discipline must control us in 
secret prayer as in other things. Difficulties can 
only be overcome when we will to conform to the 
mind of Christ. H.C. G. Moule says: “I would 
say, first, that the special difficulty of secret 
prayer is in the peculiar temptation to laxity and 
indolence in the practice, just because it is secret. 
In the case of public prayer, and social prayer, the 
fact of association brings of course a certain aid in 
this direction. We are constrained by it to keep 
time with others, at least’ to some degree, and to be- 
have ourselves as men under the eyes of others. 
But we may shorten our time of secret prayer, we 
may thrust it into a corner, we may lie late in the 
morning, or sit up comfortably late at night, and we 
are seen by no eye that we can see, and we have no 
one to be offended by our absence, lateness, or care- 
lessness. IJ am sure my reader knows, or has 
known, the reality of at least some such temptations. 
The warm bed when we wake, the bright fire in 
the late evening, the allurements of book, or con- 
versation, or whatever it is that must give way if 
we are to set ourselves to seek the King’s face be-: 
fore we sleep, the specious excuses and palliations 
of the heart—these things are real, and they are 
peculiar hindrances to the full exercise of regular 

[ 58 ] 


THE. PROFESSION OF PRAYER 


secret prayer. We intend to be up betimes, to meet 
God before we meet man. But, perhaps, our first 
meeting with God will be at family worship in the 
home, or at the chapel service in the college; and 
something whispers that this will do duty instead of 
the Morning Watch alone. Jt will not do so.’ 
Devotional books are helpful toward self-train- 
ing in the profession of prayer. Many of these, 
from which quotations are made in this book, are 
purposely mentioned, giving the author, the title, 
and the publisher. But for this training there is but 
one book, and that is the Bible. A day is lost in 
which our hearts are not opened to the word of 
God. The Psalms, some of the great statements 
from the prophets, the words of Christ and Paul, in 
fact, all of the New Testament, ought to be read 
and reread, meditated on, thought over and over, 
until their living truths have penetrated into the 
heights and depths of our being. If we would 
understand the truth we must live the truth. Our 
lives must be saturated with it. It is said in Theo- 
logia Germanica: “ No one can be made perfect in 
a day. A man must begin by denying himself, and 
willingly forsaking all things for God’s sake, and 
must give up his own will, and all his natural in- 
clinations, and separate and cleanse himself 
thoroughly from all sins and evil ways. After this, 
let him humbly take up the cross and follow Christ. 





*H. C. G. Moule. Secret Prayer (Seely, London). 
[ 59 ] 


THE PROFESSION OF PRAYER 


Also let him take and receive example and instruc- 
tion, reproof, counsel, and teaching from devout and 
perfect servants of God, and not follow his own 
guidance. Thus the work shall be established and 
come to a good end. And when a man hath thus 
broken loose from and outleaped all temporal things 
and creatures, he may afterward become perfect in 
a life of contemplation. For he who will have the 
one must let the other go. There is no other 
way.” * 

He who makes prayer a profession will not talk 
about it. True humility will lead him to close his 
“inner chamber” to all except God and himself. 
As to what degree one has given himself to the © 
profession of prayer, that must be discovered, in his 
conduct, by others. Two things remain to be 
mentioned in the self-training. These are (1) 
Finding refreshment in retreats, such as discussed 
in another chapter in this book, and (2) seeking to 
win others to Christ. There is no value in making — 
prayer a profession if it does not include making — 
“disciples of all the nations.” | 


*G. W. McCalla, Philadelphia. 


[ 60 ] 





Gracious Gop, we entreat thy mercy that Thou 
wilt set us free from all sins that doth so easily beset 
us. Let us look into the face of no man nor woman, 
nor child, be they rich or poor, acquaintance or 
stranger, friend or foe, white or coloured, but that 
we shall be able to wish them, from the depths of 
our hearts, the mercy of our God, who is the Father 
of all. Grant that we may so comprehend prayer 
as to give ourselves faithfully to its practice. Guide 
our vision in order that we may not only see in all 
the evidence of God’s children, but may we have 
the grace to call forth that evidence until it be seen 
by all. Make all our faculties servants to thy will, 
until we shall have the consciousness that we are 
the trustees of thy goodness. Give us humility, 
diligence, and courage in dealing with ourselves, as 
well as in dealing with others, and receive the lifting 
up of our souls unto Thee, in the name of Him 
who loved us and gave Himself for us, even Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 


[ 61 ] 


O Gop, who dost govern the thoughts of men; bring to 
my mind the Upper Room where the Lord Jesus broke the 
bread with his disciples in the night before He was cruci- 
fed; grant to me that, being of that company, I may look 
into the face of Him who gave Himself for the world. 
While I eat of his bread and drink of his cup, fill my life 
with his life, and send me forth to think his thoughts, to 
say his words, to do his deeds; and so, O blessed Father, 
grant that, though I know it not, the light of his face may 
shine 'in my face, and all men may take note that I have 
been with Jesus; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and 
the Holy Spirit, the God of everlasting love, world without 
end. Amen. f 

—CHARLES LEwis SLATTERY (Prayers for Private and 
Family Use—Macmillan). 


[ 62 | 


VIII 
FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 


4 4 HERE is no field so abounding in romance 
as prayer. In dealing with some of its 
aspects, the author of The Riches of 

Prayer’ intimates that he might appropriately call 
one of the chapters “The Romance of Prayer.” 
What vast fields of exploration in prayer! What 
infinite variety of experiences! What great dis- 
tances fill the vision of the soul! What new dis- 
coveries of God and self! There is no field in 
human experience just like it. World travel grows 
monotonous, but no one can explore continually 
into the field of prayer without experiencing per- 
petual joy. This is enhanced by fellowship in 
prayer. 

Christ taught his disciples to pray in their inner 
chamber—this is individual prayer—and, likewise, 
He taught them to pray together—this is corporate 
prayer, which became the common practice of the 
early Church. “If two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it 
shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
heaven. For where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them” (Matt. 18:19, 20). Corporate prayer must 
have deeply impressed the early disciples, for, at 


ey orpians 
[ 63 ] 


FELLOW SHIP IN PRAYER 


Pentecost, it is said: “‘ They were all with one accord 
in one place” (Acts 2:1). “ These all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication”’ (Acts 
1:14). And, later, those ‘‘ that believed were of 
one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32). This is 
the very essence of corporate prayer. Whatever 
may have been their differences in background, en- 
vironment, and temperament, their thoughts were 
centered on the purposes of God. 

The path of fellowship is through prayer. It has 
in it the permanent spiritual basis. Christ said more 
in prayer about the unity of his followers than He 
ever said in public discourse (John 17). So long 
as we keep the order reversed there will be un-— 
certain progress in the unity of Christendom. Cor- 
porate prayer is the method of understanding and 
friendship. When four or five persons, each repre- 
senting a different communion, have got together 
in prayer, taking with them in their prayer the 
fact that Christ is in their midst, as He said He 
would be, it is likely that they will go away much 
closer together than if they had spent the time dis- 
cussing their differences or their agreements. Cor- 
porate prayer is the path to permanent fellowship 
—not necessarily the only path, but the path of 
abundant hope. It establishes comradeship between 
personalities, making for oneness in will, faith, and 
purpose. If, however, one discovers aversion to- 
ward, or feels unfree in, praying with Christians of 
other Scriptural interpretation than his own, he is, to 

[ 64 ] 


. 


FELLOWSHIP IN. PRAYER 


say the least, self-condemned, if not involved in 
moral insincerity, which Jesus frequently and se- 
verely condemned in the ecclesiastics of his time. 

In corporate prayer there should be variety of 
temperaments and opinions, rather than uniformity. 
The world is crowded with variety and is upheld 
by the unity in God. It should be so with us in our 
fellowship one with another. Our differences 
should be no more disturbing than are oaks and 
elms in the forest, or tulips and carnations in the 
garden. We must learn that the beauty and 
strength of fellowship is in the combining of va- 
riety. The method for this is through corporate 
prayer. Uniformity and isolation are deadening 
attitudes, which are artificial and unspiritual; 
whereas, fellowship in prayer gives vitality and 

power to the fulfilment of the Divine purposes. It 
touches every discord, irregularity, and chasm in 
human life with the hope of peace, understanding, 
and good-will. 

There must be the lifting up of the soul with 
willingness both to be untaught and taught, and 
with patience both to wait for instruction and to — 
do as instructed, however difficult it may be. The 
whole process demands determination, humility, and 
patience. It may be a humiliating path we are to 
walk, or a heavy cross we are to carry, but these 
are the prices we pay for fellowship in prayer. The 
one purpose is to find the will of God by a united 
judgment. As far back as 1914 I came in touch 

[ 65 J 


FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 


with the Free Church Fellowship in England and 
the Anglican Fellowship. This kind of fellowship 
has in it wisdom and power, and means the re- 
vivifying of the spiritual life. In Christian Fellow- 
ship in Thought and Prayer it is said: “ A company 
of men and women meet together that they may 
seek that richer consciousness of God, and, with it, 
that clearer light upon truth or conduct, their need 
of which has been impressed upon them. The first 
requirement is that their power of receptivity shall 
be intensified. Of God’s willingness to lead them 
there is no question. The only point of uncertainty 
is in their ability to discern and to respond to his 
direction. Therefore, they will begin with earnest 
and united prayer. This prayer will not be hur- 
ried ; it will be a sustained act of communion. And, 
therein, they will desire four things. First, they 

will together wait in silence for a more vivid sense | 
of God’s Presence and Reality. In the strain and 
bustle of ordinary life the vision of the Unseen 
may easily grow dim; they will tarry in stillness 
before God, craving the penitence and cleansing 
through which it may once more be made clear to 
them. Next, they will together pray for the coming 
of the Kingdom. This will be no light and easy 
intercession ; they will reverently strive to view men 
from God’s own standpoint, and, so far as may be, 
to enter into his sorrow for the world’s sin and his 
sympathy with the world’s need. And, when they 
have thus learnt a little less imperfectly to see 

[ 66 ] 


FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 


mankind as God sees it, alike in its transgressions 
and in its ultimate possibilities, they will at last be 
ready, in the third place, to ask for light on the 
particular matter in which they need the Divine 
illumination. They will, therefore, pray together 
that in this special situation God’s own design may 
be made plain to them. Lastly, that all hindrance 
in themselves may be removed, they will seek, be- 
fore they turn to examine the problem, to be freed 
from every form of self-assertion. In the con- 
sciously-realized Presence of God, and relying on 
his aid, they will try to expel from their minds all 
previous bias, all personal preferences, and all self- 
seeking motives, and, at whatever cost, to will God’s 
will both for themselves and for the world. 

“This prayer, it is important to observe, is of- 
fered in an atmosphere of fellowship. The group 
of men engaged is more than a mere collection of 
individuals; it is a body of believers—a small but 
essential section of that living organism which is the 
Church of Christ, Himself its living Head. On 
this account the entire spiritual efficiency alike of 
every part and of the whole is immeasurably in- 
creased. Because of its mystical union with its 
fellows and with the Head, each separate member 
acquires a power never possessed and never at- 
tainable in isolation. The prayer of each, his peni- 
tence, his consecration, his very experience of God’s 
Presence, is deepened and enriched by those of all; 
and, in its turn, ‘through that which every joint 

[ 67 1 


FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 


supplieth’ the entire body is itself built up in love. 
This is no idle dream of what might be; it is a 
statement of what actually takes place. And it is 
in this atmosphere of a fellowship, both real and 
realized, that those who employ the method we in- 
terpret are first made ready for the nv of 
God’s will.” * 

In corporate prayer Christ is particularly clear 
relative both to the Divine response and to identi- 
fying Himself with the group (Matt. 18:19, 20). 
The experiences of the early disciples confirm this. 
Consequently, it is not a venture into the field of 
uncertainty. “Therefore, I say unto you, What 
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that 
ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 
11:24). But this must be real prayer—not a self- 
willed supplication ; but, instead, such sense of real- 
ity as to involve labour, penitence, humility, and 
obedience. It is not a process of ten or fifteen 
minutes. Corporate prayer requires both work and 
time.  Thé answer. may be “)Yes" or) No swear 
“Wait,” or, more likely, it is altogether possible 
that it will be the opposite of what we at first de- 
sired, for, in our fellowship with God, our desires 
are modified or absolutely changed. The chief pur- 
pose of fellowship in prayer is to establish a high- 
way for the will of God to be done on earth as it is 
in heaven. This mutual fellowship is based on the 

* Basil Mathews and Harry Bisseker. Christian Fellow- 
ship in Thought and Prayer (Gorham). 3 

[ 68 ] 


FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER 


common relationship to God, which is a relationship 
realized in a common fellowship among God’s 
children. Hence, prayer becomes the intercourse of 
God’s family, wherein all are brethren and God is 
Father. 


O Tuov Lover oF FELLOWSHIP, grant us wisdom, 
we pray Thee, to find the fellowship of souls in 
prayer and to maintain this fellowship, knowing 
that, if it be but two or three, Thou art with us. 
Sanctify our powers of body and mind to the task 
of fellowship. Let us grow in faith and hope and 
love. Our hearts are open toward Thee; therefore, 
abide freely within us and make us thy temple 
wherein thy voice shall be heard perpetually as we 
seek to find the way toward each other. Give us a 
passion for corporate prayer and deny us not a 
united judgment under thy guidance; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. , 


[ 69 ] 


O THou EvERNAL LovE, whom Jesus has taught us to 
call our Father, and in whom we are learning to trust 
as our Brother, our Comrade, our Closest Friend, we are 
not seeking Thee, for we know that Thou art nearer to us 
every moment than we are to ourselves; we are only 
wishing and hoping that often, through this day, the 
thought of thy nearness to us, of thy presence with us, 
may spring into our consciousness, that we may see what 
Thou art showing us, and know what Thou art telling us, 
and be ready to take what Thou art giving us, and to do 
what Thou art bidding us. 

Help us to feel more than once to-day that the good 
thoughts and the good wishes which we find in our hearts 
are signs of thy presence there; and may we learn to look 
for Thee thus, within our own lives, and to rejoice when 
we find Thee there, and so to become aware, more and 
more, of what we mean when we speak of the fellowship 
and communion of the Holy Spirit! We know that Thou 
art working in us to will and to do thy good pleasure; and 
we know that Thou findest thy good pleasure in lives made 
fruitful and beautiful in thy service. So help us to work 
with Thee, this day and every day; through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen. 


—WASHINGTON GLADDEN (God’s Minute—Vir Co.). 


[ 70 ] 


TX 
HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


RAYER is difficult—to most of us very 
difficult. It is not difficult to say a prayer, 
whether it be read or extemporaneous; but 

it is difficult to experience the reality of the soul’s 
communion with God, and, in the consciousness of 
his Presence, to direct our prayer toward Him. 

The greatest hindrance, which we meet at the very 
outset, is that not many of us have much faith in 
prayer. We go through the form and are haunted 
by its unreality. In many instances we have not 
as much faith in our God as the pagan has in his 
god. Christian unfaith has made uncertain the 
road over which prayer travels to God. There is 
no conditon so serious in the Christian world to- 
day as the real value we put upon prayer. The 
whole Church is at a discount in this matter. Our- 
unuse of Divine power, which we sorely need, can- 
not be corrected except by penitence and humility, 
for God has decreed that prayer should be, “a 
power in the universe, as distinct, as real, as natural, 
and as uniform, as the power of gravitation, or of 
light, or of electricity,’ says Austin Phelps. “A 
man may use it, as trustingly and as soberly as he 
would use either of these. It is as truly the dictate 


a 


HINDRANCES (IN PRAYER 


of good sense, that a man should expect to achieve 
something by praying, as it is that he should expect 
to achieve something by a telescope, or the mariner’s 
compass, or the electric telegraph.”* But before 
one can use the telescope, or the compass, or the 
telegraph, he must be trained in their use. 

Underlying all hindrances of approach to God is 
sin, which extends over a wide field. It may be 
that of the tongue with its deceit, flattery, exaggera- 
tion, slander, half-truths, and scurrilous talk. It 
may be that of temper, uncharitable judgments, un- 
fair criticisms, sensual thoughts, and harbouring of 
a grudge. It may be in the conduct as to attitude, 
finances, pride, secret sins, and superficiality. It 
all may be summed up in the words of the Apostle: 
“Now you know full well the doings of our lower 
natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol- 
worship, sorcery; enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts 
of passion, intrigues, dissensions, factions, envying, 
hard drinking, riotous feasting, and the like. And 
as to these I forewarn you, as I have already fore- 
warned you, that those who are guilty of such things 
will have no share in the Kingdom of God” (Gal. 
5: 19-21). 

We cannot saunter into the Living Presence with- 


out preparation, which includes self-examination, 


penitence, humility, decision, and obedience. Harry 


*Austin Phelps. The Still Hour (Lothrop, Lee & 
Shepard Co.). 
? Weymouth’s Translation. 
[ 72 ] 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


Emerson Fosdick says: “ Let some debauché from 
the dens of a city walk into a company where men 
are chivalrous and women pure, and how much will 
the debauché understand of his new environment? 
Stone walls are not so impenetrable as the veil of 
moral difference between the clean and the unclean. 
So spiritual alienation between God and man makes 
fellowship impossible. Of all the evils that most 
surely work this malign result in man’s communion 
with the Father, the Master specially noted two: 
impurity— Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
shall see God’ (Matt. 5:8); and vindictiveness, 
the unbrotherly spirit that will not forgive nor seek 
to be forgiven— If, therefore, thou art offering thy 
gift before the altar, and there rememberest that 
thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy 
gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be recon- 
ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
gift’ (Matt. 5:23, 24). No one can be wrong with 
man and. right with God. In Coleridge’s Ancient 
Mariner, one of the most vivid pictures of sin’s 
consequences ever drawn, the effect of lovelessness: 
on prayer, is put into a rememberable verse: 
“*T looked to heaven and tried to pray, 
But or ever a prayer had gush’t, 


A wicked whisper came and made 
My heart as dry as dust.’”’? 


Formality is a serious hindrance to real prayer. 


*Harry Emerson Fosdick. The Meaning of Prayer 
(Association). 
[ 73 ] 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


With it goes aimlessness, intellectual indolence, and 
unexamined lives. Instead of leading to humility 
and sincerity, which is one of the purposes of 
prayer, these lead to spiritual pride and hypocrisy. 
In the brief words of Christ we find nothing so 
severely condemned as this. It gives to the soul 
an unnatural attitude and deadens its functioning 
privileges with God. As a correction to wandering 
thoughts and tediousness in prayer, Jeremy Taylor 
says: “ Pray often, and you will pray oftener; and 
when you are accustomed to a frequent devotion, it 
will so insensibly unite to your nature and affec- 
tions, that it will become trouble to omit your usual 
or appointed prayers; and what you obtain at first 
by doing violence to your inclinations, at last will 
not be left without as great unwillingness as that 
by which at first it entered. This rule relies not 
only upon reason derived from the nature of habits, 
which turn into a second nature, and make their 


actions easy, frequent, and delightful; but it relies: 


upon a reason depending upon the nature and con- 
stitution of grace, whose productions are of the 
same nature with the parent, and increases itself, 
naturally growing from grains to huge trees, from 


minutes to vast proportions, and from moments to 
eternity.” ” 


Fear is the nightmare in experience. It is the 


lifetime bondage of many souls (Heb. 2:15). In 


‘Jeremy Taylor. Holy Living (Longmans). 
[ 74] 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


the bondage of this fear, we hesitate to venture out 
on the promises of God, testing their reality and 
satisfying the hope within us. We frequently start 
out all right, but, like Simon Peter, we begin to 
sink in the waters of our self-consciousness, 
Nevertheless, the Christ, whose outstretched arm 
saved the Apostle, saves us when, by faith, we 
behold his Living Presence, and call upon Him to 
set us free from our lifetime bondage. Only belief 
in God. can free us from fear. 

Doubts, anxiety, and insincerity play upon the 
dial of our prayer experiences, and discourage us 
greatly, so that it is not uncommon to hear it said: 
“T have prayed and prayed; I get no answer to 
my prayers; I don’t see the use of praying any 
more.” -Again, faith must take the place of doubt, 
anxiety, and insincerity. It will doubtless be diff- 
cult to find the way there; but, on the way, watch 
for every indication of response; claim it as a 
scientist does in his findings. We must abandon 
the idea that God hears us for our much speaking. 
Never! But we will surely find Him in much 
seeking. We must examine both ourselves and our 
prayers, keeping before us always that God is ex- 
amining with us, wants to give us the best, and is 
trying to establish between Him and us the high- 
way of faith over which his answers go. The 
hindrance is within us. Only faith can remove 
hindrances—even mountains will remove before its 
breath (Matt. 17: 20). 

Lez5al 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


It must be said, too, that a divided and unrecon- 
ciled Church can never so much as expect the power 
of prayer until its divisions are healed, and brother- 
hood of all Christians is a reality. Christ taught 
this both regarding individuals and the Church 
(Matt. 5:24; John 17). Paul regarded the divided 
Church as unspiritual and carnal (I Cor. 3: 1-3). 
The present divisions of Christendom are unchris- 
tian and unnatural; they can only be abolished by 
genuine penitence in prayer. 

However great may be our hindrances we can 
surmount them. We are made for it. We may be 
swayed by moods and held to certain courses by 
temperaments; but, when we make preparation,— 
and we have not tried at all if we have not some 
plan for the maintenance and development of our 
spiritual life,—we will find ourselves growing to- 
ward God. Sometimes it will seem, to us that our 
prayers are but whispers to ourselves. We become | 
discouraged, but we must keep on praying. Dean 
Goulburn says: ‘When you cannot pray as you 
would, pray as you can.” Keep at it—not praying 
as others pray, but lifting up our souls to God as 
only we ourselves can do. It will be difficult to 
hold our mind on God, to make his interests first, 
to carry in our souls the reality of the communion, 
but the musician has had difficulty, too, in concen- 
trating on perfect ideals. So has every one else 
who has tried to rise above the level of undeveloped 
possibilities. Writing in his diary, Benjamin Jowett 

[ 76 ] 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


says: “ Nothing makes one more conscious of 
poverty and shallowness of character than difficulty 
in praying or attending to prayer. Any thoughts 
about self, thoughts of evil, day-dreams, love 
fancies, easily find an abode in the mind. But the 
thought of God and of right and truth will not stay 
there, except with a very few persons. I fail to 
understand my own nature in this particular. There 
is nothing which at a distance I seem to desire more 
than the knowledge of God, the ideal, the universal ; 
and yet for two minutes I cannot keep my mind 
upon them. But I read a great work of fiction, and 
can hardly take my mind fromit. If I had any real 
love of God, would not my mind dwell upon Him?” 

But the answer to that, which is our common 
experience, lies in the power of the will to make its 
choice. The heart may desire it, the mind may rea- 
son that it is wise; but, until the will identifies itself 
freely with the will of God, there is no satisfactory 
progress. Even then discouragement is common in 
our experiences, due partly to our human weakness 
and partly to our lack of knowledge of the processes 
in the development of the human will, which is a 
thing of growth and is designed to conform to the 
will of God. This conformity is attained not by a 
set of rules in morality, but rather by a real dis- 
covery of the Father’s gracious will in dealing with 
his children and, thereby, the will continues to func- 
tion, moving unbribed from each discovery to larger 
freedom. In spite of hindrances it continues to 

Lva7al 


HINDRANCES IN PRAYER 


choose God, who is forever seeking for us. “ Wher- 
ever in all the world there is a human heart,” says 
Alexander Whyte, ‘‘ God also is there. And He is 
there in order to have that heart poured out before 
Him. And out of that, out of the aloneness of 
the human heart, and out of the nearness of God 
to every human heart, there immediately arises this 
supreme duty to every man who has a heart,—that 
he shall at all times pour his heart out before God. 
It is not the duty and privilege of psalmists and 
great saints only. It is every man’s duty, and 
every man’s privilege. And, indeed, all our duties 
to God are already summed up in this one great 
duty; and all our privileges are held out to us at 
once in this unspeakable privilege. ‘Trust in Him 
at all times: ye people, pour out your heart before 
Him: God is a refuge for us.’”* Through many 
hindrances we hear his voice and make choice of 
Him, for we are made for Him and it is unnatural 
for us to be separated from Him, 


* Alexander Whyte. Lord, Teach Us to Pray (Doran). 
[ 78 ] 


O Tuou, UNSEEN AND ETERNAL, by whose power 
we are upheld and by whose grace we are pardoned, 
have mercy on us. Take from us the sense of thy 
unreality, give us purity of heart and a forgiving 
attitude toward all, clear the dimness in our spiritual 
vision, command our temperaments, and let us not 
be discouraged because we have different ways of 
praying, nor be blind to thy gracious presence within 
us. Thou art wonderful in thy loving-kindness and 
we rejoice because thy search for us is always prior 
to any search that we have ever made for Thee. 
Bceause Thou hast found us Thou wilt fulfil thy 
promises in us and wilt lead us in the way to ever- 
lasting life that our fellowship with Thee may con- 
tinue for ever and ever. Amen. 








[ 79 ] 


FatuHEr, I thank Thee for work and for the opportunity 
to work. I rejoice that in working I reflect some broken 
gleam of thy glory. ‘Thou fillest the past and the present 
in all worlds with thy tireless energy, yet is there no fret 
or haste in all thy doing. 

Grant that I also may do my appointed tasks with a 
sense of ease and mastery, always conscious that I am 
greater than they, and ever ready for still nobler efforts. 

Save me from sullen discontent, from fruitless war with 
the circumstances of my lot. Make my heart obedient 
that by the untoward things of experience I may win-a 
larger and freer life. Uphold me with the faith that 
Thou hast called me into fellowship with thy perfect Son 
who, when He dwelt among us, went about doing good. 

In this faith be it mine to cheer the mourner, raise up 
the fallen, relieve the needy, forgive the wrong-doer, and 
praise the lover of simplicity and goodness. While I give 
to others, give Thou to me, that I may grow more and 
more in the spirit of helpfulness and generosity, both in — 
word and deed. Amen. 


—SAMUEL McComs (Prayers for To-day—Harper). 


[ 80 j 


Xx 
Wetman bor TUR RYN BRAY BR 


| OTHING is more damaging to spiritual 
N experience than hurry. Time and quiet 
| are essential to worship. They are not 
choices, but are as necessary elements in spiritual 
growth as showers and mild weather are necessary 
for the revival of vegetation. Hurry in worship is 
like frost on flowers, 

Where it has not taken away worship entirely, 
in many instances, and these are far too many, it 
has established short, and usually sloven, periods 
for Bible reading and prayer—just a few moments, 
so brief that there is no time for thought and medi- 
tation. Such practices are the sources of superficial 
piety, if not blight upon all spiritual growth. 

Acquaintance with God can no more be hurriedly 
made than with an individual. In fact hurry, in 
either instance, rather indicates that acquaintance 
is not desired beyond mere selfish use. Conse-. 
quently, hurried prayer ordinarily drops to the level 
of pagan worship. It is a question whether that 
kind of prayer is worth anything at all, with the 
overwhelming evidence against it as possessing any 
spiritual value. 

Time is taken for eating, although sometimes 
that is shortened, but there is a tendency to linger 


around one of the meals, usually the evening meal. 
[ 81 ] 


THE HURT 'OPMHURRY IN, PRAYER 


Time is taken for the newspaper. Time is taken 
for some pleasure, if only occasionally. There is 
time for work under heavy pressure through the 
day, and, perhaps, into the night. But nothing is 
needed in this world to-day more than time for 
prayer. We too frequently give everything else a 
place, but God, in whom we live and move and have 
our being. Not only is it proper to raise the ques- 
tion as to the wisdom of this course, but is it morally 
right? | 

If we enumerate the necessities of life, prayer 
belongs at the top of the list, because our spiritual 
natures are primary factors in our existence. The 
rush and hurry with which we are surrounded, and 
of which we unconsciously partake, contribute to 
the deadening of our spiritual experiences. 

It is true the Lord’s Prayer is brief and so are 
most of the prayers in the Bible, but those who 
prayed these short printed prayers, or gave them 
as suggestions as to how to pray, in some instances, 
as in that of Christ, “ continued all night in prayer 
to God” (Luke 6:12). Jacob wrestled all night 
and, therefore, we read “the God of Jacob is our 
refuge” (Psa. 46:11). David prayed morning, 
noon, and night, and he became God’s servant, 
whose “sure mercies” became the foundation of 
our everlasting covenant of redemption (Isa. 55:3). 
In spite of the king’s decree, Daniel kneeled before 
his open window toward Jerusalem, and prayed 
three times a day, and God gave him a vision of 

[ 82 ] 


REIS EOL OPS EUR RAGING P RAY ER 


| his Kingdom (Dan. 7:1). Paul prayed continually 
\ and exhorted the Christians to pray, saying: “ Pray- 
ing always with all prayer and supplication in the 
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all persever- 
ance and supplication for all saints” (Eph. 6: 18). 
Long periods of prayer were the general practice of 
the early Church. 

In modern times we are reminded of Luther, 
Wesley, Judson, Havelock, and others praying sev- 
eral hours a day. The practice of George Mueller 
was to spend long periods with his open Bible on a 
table before him, communing with God. Others 
have used their Bibles, or special passages of Scrip- 
ture, in thinking over their work to get God’s point 
of view in doing it. Bishop Moule’s practice was a 
standing attitude or walking up and down, either 
indoors or out of doors. I have found for myself 
both George Mueller’s and Bishop Moule’s plans 
very satisfactory. After a period in such prayer, 
one may be able to say with some confidence: “ Lord 
Jesus Christ, things stand between us on the old 
terms,’ as Bengel was heard to say after working 
for hours, late into the night, over his Gnomon Novi 
Testamenti, The prayer itself need not be long, 
but the communion with God should cover a lengthy 
period if the prayer is to be effective. Some have 
established horologic processes, so that at the strik- 
ing of the clock there is a call to prayer—just a 
brief upward thought. Men at the office, shop, or 
factory ; women about their household duties, enter- 

[ 83 ] 


THE HURT OF HURRY IN PRAYER 


taining friends, or at their place of business—any 
one, anywhere can surely think for a moment of 
God—if only an unspoken ejaculatory prayer. 
Paul’s exhortation is, “ Pray without - ceasing” 
(I Thess. 5:17). Aristides, a first century Chris- 
tian apologist, says in his Apologia: “ Every morn- 
ing and every hour Christians give thanks and praise 
to God for his lovingkindness toward them; and 
for their food and drink they offer thanksgiving to 
jee kbnet ore } 

A suggestive horology may be as follows: 1 A. M. 
—“ When I remember Thee upon my bed, and medi- 
tate on Thee in the night watches” (Psa. 63:6). 
2 A. M.—‘I have remembered thy name, O Lord, 
in the night, and have kept thy law ” (Psa. 119: 55). 
3 A. M.—“In the morning, rising up a great while 
before day, He went out, and departed into a soli- 
tary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35). 
4 A. M.— Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto 
thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou 
shalt deny me thrice” (Matt. 26:34). 5 A. M.— 
“The morning stars sang together, and all the sons 
of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). 6A. M— 
“He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the 
good” (Matt. 5:45). 7 a. mM.—‘O come, let us 
worship and bow down: let us kneel before the 
Lord our Maker” (Psa. 95:6). 8 a. M.—‘ What- 
soever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and 
not unto men” (Col. 3:23). 9 A. M.—Pouring out 





* Aristides. Apologia, translation by Kay. 
[ 84 J 


DHE nURT OF HURRY. IN, PRAYER 


of the Holy Spirit, “for these are not drunken, as 
ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the 
day” (Acts 2:15). 10 A. M.—‘“ One is your Mas- 
ter, even Christ; and all ye are brethren” (Matt. 
23:8). 11 A. M.—‘ Let the words of my mouth, 
and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in 
thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer ” 
(Psa. 19:14). 12 Noon— When the sixth hour 
was come, there was darkness over the whole land 
until the ninth hour” (Mark 15:33). “ Blotting 
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against 
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the 
way, nailing it to his cross”’ (Col. 2:14). “ Peter 
went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth 
hour” (Acts 10:9). 1 Pp. M.—“ Then enquired he 
[the nobleman] of. them the hour when he began 
to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at 
the seventh hour the fever left him” (John 4:52). 
2 Pp. M.—‘“I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not re- 
member thy sins” (Isa. 43:25). 3 Pp. M.—“ About 
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, 
my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 
27:46). “ Peter and John went up together into 
the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth 
hour” (Acts 3:1). Cornelius “saw a vision evi- 
dently about the ninth hour of the day” (Acts 
10:3). 4 P. M.—James and John became disciples 
of Jesus “and abode with Him that day: for it was 
[ 85 ] 


THE HURT OF HURRY IN PRAYER 


about the tenth hour” (John 1:39). 5 Pp. M— 
Calling for labourers in the Christian vineyard— 
“ And about the eleventh hour He went out, and 
found others standing idle, and said unto them, 
Why stand ye here all the day idle?” (Matt. 20:6). 
6 p. mM.—Christ abiding with the Emmaus disciples 
—‘‘ And they constrained Him, saying, Abide with 
us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far 
spent. And He went in to tarry with them” (Luke 
24:29). 7 P. M.—‘ Let my prayer be set forth be- 
fore Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my 
hands .as the evening sacrifice? /(Psaioa4re2)- 
8 p. M.— Now when the even was come, He sat 
down with the twelve. . . . And as they were 
eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake 
it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; 
this.is my body. And He took the cup, and gave 
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all 
of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, 
which is shed for many for the remission of sins” 
(Matt. 26: 20, 26-28). 9 Pp. M.—Christ blessing and 
commissioning his Apostles—“ At evening, being 
the first day of the week, when the doors were shut 
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the 
Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith 
unto them, Peace be unto you” (John 20: 19). 
IO P. M. 
“The heavens declare the glory of God; 

And the firmament showeth his handiwork. 

Day unto day uttereth speech, 

And night unto night showeth knowledge” 


(Psa. 1021, 2): 
[ 86 ] : 


ieee OUST TRY SIN PRAYER 


II P. M. 
“Surely the darkness shall cover me; 

Even the night shall be light about me. 

Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; 

But the night shineth as the day; 

The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee” 

CP sa ets lia 12): 
I2 MiIpNicHT—“ At midnight I will rise to give 
thanks unto Thee because of thy righteous judg- 
ments” (Psa. 119:62). The midnight struggle of 
Jesus in Gethsemane (Mark 14: 32-42). The para- 
ble of the midnight friend (Luke 11: 5-10). Paul 
and Silas prayed at midnight (Acts 16:25). Jacob 
had his midnight prayer before he became Israel 
(Gen. 32:24-28). “Behold, the bridegroom 
cometh!” (Matt. 25:6) is the midnight cry. More 
than in any other hour, it appears that the midnight 
prayer has been winged with most courageous faith. 
But time must be given to prayer. If necessary 
to find quiet, we should rise earlier or resort to some 
other practical plan that will satisfy our spiritual 
necessities. William Wilberforce says: “ This per- 
petual hurry of business and company ruins me in 
soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier 
hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually 
too little time to religious exercises, such as private 
devotion and religious meditation, Scripture read- 
iInpecice iience, lam lean and cold and hard. I 
had better allot two hours or an hour and a half 
daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and 
hence have had but a hurried half hour in a morn- 
ing to myself. Surely the experience of all good 
[ 87 ] 


THE HURT OF HURRY IN PRAYER: 


men confirms the proposition that without a due 
measure of private devotions the soul will grow 
lean.” . 

Our hurry may be in maintaining a method of 
Christian work. Then, it is still less inexcusable, 
for neither methods nor money nor culture can be 
a substitute for prayer. God’s systems are men. 
These are the channels through which his grace 
flows. All enduring work must have foundations 
of prayer. Not even church activity can be a sub- 
stitute for prayer. “ To pray is the greatest thing 
we can do; and to do it well there must be calm- 
ness, time, and deliberation; otherwise it is de- 
graded into the smallest and meanest of things.” * 
There is nothing in life so urgent or important that 
we should lessen the time to pray. It is vital to us 
that we take time for communion and fellowship 
with God, who is revealed through Jesus Christ. To 
clear the vision to human eyes for a true under- 
standing of Himself, God appeared in the person of 
his Son. It is the duty of faith to deal primarily 
with the reality of this revelation as it touches hu- 
man life, going as far as Jesus seeks to take us, 
when He says: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto Me” (Matt. 25:40). To do this it takes 
time for friendly observation, spiritual meditation, 
and the full appropriation of the Living Christ to 
our needs. 


*E. M, Bounds. Power Through Prayer (Marshall). 
[ 88 ] 


O Gop oF PATIENCE AND PARDON, save us from 
the impoverishment and danger of hurry in our de- 
votions, lest the bloom of our spiritual life be per- 
manently blighted. Revive us from our leanness of 
soul and coldness of heart by awakening in us the 
sense of waiting and wrestling with Thee. Hush 
within us the first rise of murmurings against the 
taxing necessities of prayer. May there be no 
counting of the cost of time and labour, lest our 
foundations be imperiled. O Lord, pardon us of 
all slovenness in our devotions and set us to re- 
deeming the time with gladness. Amen. 








[ 89 ] 


O THou GrEAtT COMPANION OF Our Sous, do Thou go 
with us to-day and comfort us by the sense of thy presence 
in the hours of spiritual isolation. Give us a single eye for 
duty. Guide us by the voice within. May we take heed of 
all the judgments of men and gather patiently whatever 
truth they hold, but teach us still to test them by the words 
and the spirit of the One who alone is our Master. May 
we not be so wholly of one mind with the life that now 
is that the world can fully approve us, but may we speak 
the higher truth and live the purer righteousness which 
Thou. hast revealed to us. If men speak well of us, may 
we not be puffed up; if they slight us, may we not be 
cast down; remembering the words of our Master who 
bade us rejoice when men speak evil against us and trem- 
ble if all speak well, that so we may have evidence that— 
we are still soldiers of God. Amen. 


—WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH (Prayers of the Social 
Awakening—Pilgrim Press). 


[ 90 J 


XI 
THE. DANGER OF BEING. ALONE 


OLITUDE has its benefits. Great ideas have 
come out of it. The quiet hour is the sum- 
mer of spirituality. It is necessary for spir- 

itual growth. But there is no time in life so dan- 
gerous as when we are alone. The greatest tempta- 
tions come at that time. No outward wrong has 
ever been done that has not been thought out, di- 
rectly or indirectly, in solitude. This fact has been 
made clear in Bible history and present-day experi- 
ence sustains it. The great temptation of Christ 
came when He was alone in the wilderness. We 
may put to flight the outward foe, and then be slain 
by our own thoughts when we retire to our room 
or stroll through the fields and forests. 

The besetting sin is never so beseeching as then. 
Pride, retaliation, revenge, envy, jealousy, covet- 
eousness, sensuality, and every other sin makes its 
approach at that time most attractively clothed. 
It invites our thoughts for a stroll down the path 
of imagination. There is no apparent harm, but 
the constant repetition establishes the besetting sin, 
always discovering the path which we are most 
willing to take—finding our weakest point ; then, for- 
ever waiting there, and watching for every chance, 


ola 


THE DANGER OF BEING ALONE 


when we are alone, for a stroll down the designated 
path. This continues until the thought is strong 
enough to break forth into an act. 

We may have been wronged. Outwardly our 
conduct may be friendly. We may even say pub- 
licly kind things about the one who has wronged us. 
But, when alone, we think of retaliation, perhaps, 
revenge. We do not, of course, use those con- 
demnatory terms, but our thoughts stroll down the 
path of imagination—perhaps. this, perhaps that; 
and, perhaps, we are unconscious that we are stroll- 
ing down a forbidden path until we feel the flush of 
resentment or of anger; even then we may continue 
in a self-conscious eee to set ourselves right, if 
only in our own eyes, and, perhaps, inflict wrong 
upon the one who has wronged us or whom we 
imagine has wronged us. A look or a word be- 
trays the thought and, if the chance comes, retalia- 
tion or revenge takes a permanent place in our con- 
duct. Then we have that awful word—unforgive- 
ness. 

It is unnatural for one to be constantly alone. 
Mankind is a fellowship. Unconsciously we are 
giving and receiving as we pass through the day. 
To make choice of solitude for study or prayer is 
one thing, keeping the mind steadily at the task; but 
it is quite another thing if the chosen solitude does 
not include God’s presence. If the mind is allowed 
to roam at will through the day’s transaction, or the 
transaction of some former days, recalling unholy 

[ 92 ] 


a 


, 


THE DANGER OF BEING ALONE 


impressions, which are developed in solitude, one 
becomes unfit for the task of the succeeding day, 
and is violating the principle of living day by day. 

In the soul’s efforts to find a way out of present 
circumstances, which is a common experience, it 
may give itself to day dreaming, which, if only fan- 
tastic and unreal, may become detrimental, but, if 
any phase of unholiness is indulged in, it is hurtful 
to the soul. Spiritual guide-posts can be set up 
whenever we are alone. Thus, day dreaming may 
give way to spiritual imagination, which may take 
the soul into higher experiences. One must be on 
his guard that the period of solitude be used for 
spiritual advancement by the exercise of prayer. 

We are likely to think of the crowded thorough- 
fares with their glitter and enticements as the most 
dangerous places. It is not so. They may have 
some danger, but the most dangerous temptations 
are when we are alone rather than when we are 
with people. Somehow the personal contact holds 
us to higher ideals. When we leave people, be they 
few or many, then is our danger. Impure actions 
always have back of them impure thoughts that 
are developed in the quiet. This is the interpre- 
tation of the Apostle Paul, when he exhorts to “ put 
on the whole armour of God.” It was not to meet 
the outward foe of “flesh and blood,” but it was 
to rout “ spiritual wickedness” that seeks the con- 
trol of our thoughts and motives when we are alone. 
The inner wrestling is the severest in human experi- 

[ 93 ] 


THE DANGER OF BEING ALONE 


ence. Then is the need of the whole armour, with- 
out which no one will be able to stand. 

Others can help us in the crowd, but only God 
can help us when we are alone. If we will it so, 
the danger may be turned into opportunity for the 
lifting up of our souls to God in prayer. We need, 
therefore, to put on “the whole armour of God, 
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, 
and having done all, to stand”’ (Eph. 6:13). One 
of the functions of prayer is. to light up the times 
that we are alone with the Living Presence for 
definite spiritual awakening. When Abraham was 
alone he heard God calling him, and God blessed - 
him (Isa. 51:2). When Daniel was alone he saw 
the vision of God (Dan. 10: 1-21). Christ fre- 
quently went alone to pray. Sometimes He prayed 
all night (Luke 6:12). Our being alone is an op- 
portunity for prayer. 


[ 94 ] 


O Tuou KEEPER OF MANKIND, leave us not when 
we go alone. Keep the human voice ringing in our 
ears and the remembrance of the human touch, 
however long we may be alone. O Thou tempted 
Son of God, come to us in the midst of our thoughts 
in order that we may be saved from hurting both 
thyself and us. We fear the strife of the open far 
less than the wrestling with our thoughts in our 
room or in the fields and forests. There Thou 
alone art the helper of the helpless. Put to shame 
our vanities, dispel our fears, and make our quiet 
hours aglow with thy Living Presence; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 





[ 95 ] 


’T1s God from heaven we hear, 

As the Spirit listens near. 

We hear his voice within us, 

In tones of love most glorious. 

Then like flick’ring candles burning, 

Our thoughts waver in discerning, 

Till from God comes gentle light, 

Revealing in us sin’s blight. 

Such times noisy words are vain. 

Thought meets thought in silent pain. 

Curtained alone with Him and us, 

It is his strong voice speaking thus, 
“1 will blot out all thy sin; 

Gird thy strength to again begin.” 

To walk in truth’s path anew 

Adorns our best with golden hue. 

’Tis done! Through wide gates of sense 

Speaks love in fragrant incense. 

Then all on earth and all above 

Will know our hearts are bound in love. 


[ 96 ] 


XII 
SLEENTeOWORSHIEP 


TYPE of prayer that is especially needed 
A in these times of noise and rush, and that 

appeals strongly to certain temperaments, 
is silent worship. It has held a place in spiritual 
devotion throughout the history of religion. The 
Hebrews and early Christians give their witness to 
its worth. Later, striking instances are found 
among the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics. 
Other instances are found, here and there, among 
various religious bodies. In the larger use of it 
by the Society of Friends—and no religious body 
has given such emphasis to it as the Friends—they 
show the rare fruits of it in a high standard of 
moral and spiritual life. 

There is something about it that is wonderfully 
salutary in the soul’s approach to God. It is a 
definite expression of obedience in the practice of 
self-retirement. ‘‘ Enter into thy closet, and when 
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who 
is in secret” (Matt. 6:6). To retire within our- 
selves may be difficult to do, but self-retirement to 
some degree is a necessary part of all worship, espe- 
cially of silent worship. God is everywhere; but, 
if we are able to expel from our thoughts the things 

[ 97 ] 


SILENT WORSHIP 


that have crowded our minds through the day, and 
if we really take pains to: retire within ourselves, 
we will find, in many instances, that the silence will 
create an atmosphere by which shall come into our 
souls the consciousness of the Living Presence. 

It is a great privilege to pour out our needs to 
God, but it is a greater privilege to wait in silence 
for the impact of his Spirit upon ours. ‘‘ Wait on 
the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall 
strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” 
(Psa.27:14). We are ever ready to ask for Divine 
guidance, but we too frequently hurry away before 
it is given, when, instead, we should be saying with | 
the Psalmist: “I will hear what God the Lord will 
speak: for He will speak peace unto his people, 
and to his saints” (85:8).. Peace is never to be 
associated with a negative experience; it is always 
positive. It is the result of definite effort. It comes, 
perhaps, more deeply into life in periods of silence 
because the soul is then freer to receive spiritual 
impressions in its deeper self. 

The impact of the Living Spirit upon our spirits 
is a method of God’s approach to'us. This must 
have been the experience of Amos, when he said: 
“The Lord God hath spoken, who can but 
prophesy?” (Amos 3:8). While it is not the only 
method of God’s approach to men, and is unsuited 
both in some instances and to some temperaments, 
nevertheless the method of spiritual impact runs 
through the experiences of Hebrew Prophets and 

[ 98 ] 


SILENT WORSHIP 


Christian Apostles and Evangelists. It controlled 
Paul in his missionary tours, forbidding him to go 
in some instances, and directing him to go in other 
instances. It has been the experience of the great 
missionary pioneers. Multitudes of humble and un- 
known disciples bear witness to this leadership by 
the impact of the Living Spirit upon the human 
spirit. 

The vital thing is the listening attitude. In silent 
worship we are not seeking for new thoughts; we 
are not concerned with things new or old; we are 
concerned only with Reality. ‘“ Speak, Lord; for 
thy servant heareth” (I Sam. 3:9). Most persons, 
who unreservedly open the door of their souls to 
God, will experience the true sursuwm corda, the 
lifting up of the soul into the Living Presence. 

This silence may be for only a few moments, or 
it may continue for half an hour. It may precede 
a prayer or an address, or it may follow. It may 
begin with all saying the Lord’s Prayer and close, in 
conformity with the custom of the Friends, by 
shaking hands; or it may begin with a Psalm and 
close with a Psalm, followed by the benediction. 
The meeting may be given a subject or it may be 
left free to find a subject. 

But it must not be compulsory; it must not be 
allowed to become tiresome; its: results must not 
be talked about afterward, whether satisfactory or 
unsatisfactory; its benefits must be discovered in 
our lives. It must be an experience in which the 

, [ 99 ] 


SILENT WORSHIP 


soul has persevered into the Presence of the Living 
Father, listening for his voice. “There was si- 
lence, and I heard a voice” (Job 4:16). “Be 
silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for He is raised 
up out of his holy habitation” (Zech. 2:13). 
“Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him 
cometh my salvation” (Psa. 62:1). “ Praise wait- 
eth for Thee, O God, in Zion: and unto Thee shall 
the vow be performed” (Psa. 65:1). As we enter 
into the silence there must be a conscious surrender 
of ourselves to God—penitence for unforgiveness, 
revenge, envy, jealousy, sensuality, and all un- 
righteousness. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
the.-Lord ‘will not ‘hear me ~-(Psa:. 60510) 2050 at 
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness” (I John 1:9). Confession and 
penitence are necessary if the soul would be free in 
its fellowship with the Living Father, who is long- 
suffering and abundant in mercy to all who come 
unto Him. 

Before everything must be reverence, and such 
reverence as establishes right relations with God. 
It is a common thing to say that evil-doing is the 
cause of delay in the coming of the Kingdom. Asa 
matter of fact, evil-doing is not the cause. The real 
cause of delay is irreverence or sheer idolatry. The 
world to-day is obsessed with a more insidious 
idolatry than at any time in history. It has robbed 
the Church of its spiritual power. No one follows 

[ 100 ] 


SILENT WORSHIP 


his own will except he is an idolater. The coming 
of the Kingdom means the rule of his will in us. 
There must first be reverence, then surrender, and 
then obedience. These form the trinity of the 
Christian’s experience—all three perpetually func- 
tioning and making the heart able to receive Divine 
impressions and, likewise, to make impressions. 
Willing, waiting, and doing is the order. 

The silence.is a symbol of surrender. “ Be still, 
and know that I am God” (Psa. 46:10). What- 
ever may be our burdens or our needs, we must 
seek to bring our minds primarily to think of God— 
his goodness, his love, and his power. It may take 
longer to bring us to this than we anticipated, but 
the waiting and perseverance are worth while if we 
would find the listening ‘attitude. In The Fellowship 
of Silence it is said: “It has to be remembered that 
this silent worship, dependent as it is on the at- 
tunement of many’ minds, is, in a way, a delicate 
instrument, more delicate than even the telephone 
or the telegraph, which transmits messages in the 
material world, and, therefore, easily jarred; yet it 
is even more certain and reliable, in its working, 
when faithfully used. Silence has perils of its own, 
just as speech has, but we find, in practice, that 
there are fewer perils in the two things used to- 
gether than in either apart. ‘T-o us, at any rate, 
compulsory silence is not healthy. To spend an 
hour in prearranged unbroken silence, where there 
is not liberty to speak, is like being shut up in a 

[ ror ] 


SILENT WORSHIP 


hothouse. True, there may be wonderful and beau- 
tiful plants all around us, exotic flowers, and 
fragrant scents, almost overpowering in their sweet- 
ness. It may be a wonderful experience to go 
through, now and then, but, to us at least, it would 
not be healthy to become dependent upon it, or to 
use it habitually. Such a silence is as different as 
possible from the free open-air atmosphere to which 
we are accustomed, with the wind of the Spirit 
sweeping over us and blowing where it listeth, as it 
does on a wide moor, or rippling over a barley 
field among the ears of living grain.”* Silent wor- 
ship has deepened the spiritual experience of many 
lives. It is a method of worship which needs to be 
given larger practice in the observance of the Lord’s 
Supper, in Retreats, and in special meetings, as well 
as in one’s private devotions. “I waited patiently 
for the cord, and He inclined unto me, and heard 
my cry’ Sey 40:1). 


*L. A. Hodgkin. The Fellowship of Silence (Mac- 


millan). 


[ 102 } 


O Gop, Thou who hearest and Thou who speak- 
est, from Thee cometh salvation. Because of thy 
still voice in the silence many have been revived in 
faith, hope, and love. There was no audible voice; 
it was a strange but natural impact of thy Spirit 
upon our spirits. Thy unspoken speech has been 
heard by. thy listening servants through all the 
centuries of man’s history. Rebuke our unwilling- 
ness to listen, and give us the consciousness of thy 
unspoken communion: then we shall be glad, when 
in the silence we have felt thy nearness and have 
called Thee Father; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 


[ 103 ] 


O My Fatuer, I have moments of deep unrest—mo- 
ments when I know not what to ask by reason of the very 
excess of my wants. I have in these hours no words for 
Thee, no conscious prayers for Thee. My cry seems 
purely worldly; I want only the wings of a dove that I 
may flee away. Yet all the time Thou hast accepted my 
unrest as a prayer. ‘Thou hast interpreted its cry for a 
dove’s wings as a cry for Thee, Thou hast received the 
nameless longings of my heart as the intercessions of thy 
Spirit. They are not yet the intercessions of my spirit; 
I know not what I ask. But Thou knowest what I ask, 
O my God. Thou knowest the name of that need which 
lies beneath my speechless groan. Thou knowest that, be- 
cause I am made in thine image, I can find rest only in 
what gives rest to Thee; therefore, Thou hast counted 
my unrest unto me for righteousness, and hast called my 
sighing thy Spirit’s prayer. Amen, 

—GrorcE MATHESON (Great Souls at Prayer by Mary. 
Tileston—Allenson). 


[ 104 ] 


Dari 
THE BIBLE AND PRAYER 


P “HE Bible is the one prayer book of all his- 
tory. On its pages may be found the 
earliest records of prayer, culminating in 

the Psalms, of which Ambrose says: “‘ Those who 

listen to or read the Psalms aright, may find as if 
they had been written exclusively for themselves. 

Through them I learn to avoid sin, and unlearn 

being ashamed of repentance.” The opening of the 

New Testament is made fragrant in the atmosphere 

of prayer; likewise, its close is marked by prayer ; 

while through its pages walks Jesus Christ, the 
greatest interpreter of prayer. 

The whole Bible is a small book. The New 
Testament may be read through in ten hours, and 
the Old Testament in three times ten. It is God’s 
primer for mankind. We know it only when we 
practice it, as we know a rule in arithmetic, not 
when we can recite it, but when we are able to 
work the sum under that rule. For instance, quot- 
ing Scripture on forgiveness, and yet not trying 
to practice forgiveness, is evidence that we not only 
know little about the Scriptural principle of for- 
giveness, but we are, likewise, ignorant of the prin- 
ciples of prayer. It may be a lifetime task, and 

[ 105 ] 


THE BIBLE AND PRAYER 


forgiveness is as hard a task in the lives of most 
individuals as the suppressing of any other sin, but 
not until one is able to work heroically at forgive- 
ness can it be said that he understands either the 
Scriptures or prayer. It is so with every other 
principle. We may fail, and fail many times, but 
we must continue to work and pray courageously 
toward the ideal. Human life is just long enough 
to learn the principles of Divine living. A good 
rule in reading the four Gospels is to put ourselves 
in the place of every one with whom Jesus dealt. 
Just as soon as the person appears on the pages of 
the Gospel, let us put ourselves right in their place 
and hold that position throughout the narrative. If 
we are not just that person, we might have been. 
To all Christ is Friend and Redeemer. 

The Psalms afford the finest expressions of the 
soul’s need to be found anywhere. Athanasius 
says: “In this book thou findest the whole life of 
man pictured, the moods of the heart, the move- 
ments of the thoughts. If thou hast need of re- 
pentance, if thou hast met trial and temptation, if 
thou art exposed to persecution and calumny, in 
all and in every case, thou canst find here instruc- 
tion, and bring thy case before God in the words 
of the Psalms.” 

Tn this little volume may be found some of the 
most choice Psalms, classified as follows: (1) Peni- 
tential—6th, 32nd, 38th, 39th, 51st, ro2nd, 130th, 
and 143rd. (2) Thanksgiving—3oth, 46th, 65th, 

[ 106 ] 


THE BIBLE AND PRAYER 


66th, 67th, 96th, 107th, 116th, 124th, and 138th. 
(3) Petition—25th, 41st, 43rd, 63rd, 86th, 119th 
(33-40), 123rd, 14Ist, and 142nd. (4) Nature— 
Sth, 19th, 29th, 93rd and 104th. (5) Adoration— 
to3rd, 111th, 145th, 146th, 147th, 148th, and rsoth. 
These, and others, may be read and reread with 
most salutary results, especially if we are in the 
mood of penitence, of spiritual fellowship, and 
courage, or of thanksgiving, or of petition, or of 
nature, or of adoration. We may sweep through 
the whole Bible and, everywhere, prayer is a 
reality in the lives of those who pray. Hence, 
above all books, the Bible should be read until 
our reading becomes prayer. Read it over and 
over. Its lessons are difficult to learn. In many 
instances we are put to shame because of the in- 
difference with which we go to prayer and the little 
value we put on the petition we make. 

The prayers of the Bible are the expressions of 
living speech. Paul’s prayers in Ephesians and 
Colossians are superb instances. Austin Phelps 
says: “Let a man approach God with both vague- 
ness of thought and languor of emotion; and what 
else can his prayer be, but a weariness to himself 
and an abomination to God? It would be a miracle, 
if such a suppliant should enjoy success in prayer. 
He cannot succeed, he cannot have joy, because he 
has no‘object that elicits intense desire, and no de- 
sire that sharpens his object. He has no great, 
holy, penetrative thought in him, which stirs up 

[ 107 ] 


THE‘ BIBLE AND’) PRAYER 


his sensibilities; and no deep, swelling sensibility, 
therefore, to relieve by prayer. His. soul is not 
reached by anything he is thinking about, and, there- 
fore, he has no soul to pour out before God. Such 
a man prays because he thinks he must pray; not 
because he is grateful to God that he may pray. 
There is an unspeakable difference between ‘ must’ 
and ‘may.’ It is his conscience that prays; it 1s 
not his heart. His language is the language of his 
conscience. He prays in words which ought to ex- 
press his heart, not in those which do express it.” * 

The weakness of prayer is the lack of faith. 
Writing to the Roman Christians Paul affirms that 
faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 
10:17). Where there is the slightest doubt, we 
must not hesitate to bring to bear the severest proof. 
Both the Old and New Testaments invite investiga- 
tion (Mal. 3:10; John 1:39). In simplifying 
difficult passages it will be helpful to make use of 
the various versions, such as the Revised, the 
American Revised, Weymouth’s, Moffatt’s, River- 
side, and others. We must not be afraid of the 
findings of scholarship. The Bible is a book of 
growth. Its various books and letters were not 
combined into one volume, as we now have it, until 
the fourth century of our Christian era. But . 
scholarship is not enough. It- must be put into 
human experience. In this we must be no less 

*Austin Phelps. The Still Hour (Lothrop, Lee & 


Shepard Co.). 
[ 108 ] 


EOP BIBLE ANDYPRAY ER 


severe in dealing with our experience than scholars 
are in dealing with the text. We must find reality 
whatever it may cost us. 

In our study of the Bible it must ever be kept in 
mind that it is a book dealing with righteousness, 
interpreting Divine standards of motive, disposition, 
and conduct as related to mankind. Without argu- 
ment its open pages reveal in the simplest style 
man’s possibility of spiritual achievement. In fact, 
it marks out unerringly his normal path, showing all 
other paths to be abnormal, and leaves for contem- 
plation the most fascinating dream that ever cap- 
tivated a human soul. 

It does not argue for prayer. It assumes that 
prayer is the normal state between God and man, as 
natural as the wind, or the waves, or flying birds, or 
growing plants. It is a part of man’s existence, 
more vital to the complete man than any one of his 
five senses, or all of his five senses combined. 
Prayer uses the senses as roads over which to travel 
and in the practice of prayer wide visioned men 
speak in the name of God. John Ruskin says that, 
in his childhood, two or three chapters from the 
Bible were read to him every day by his mother, 
who required him to commit certain passages every 
day to memory and that he thus learned, and was 
able to recite, the following portions of Scripture: 
Exodus 15th and 16th chapters, II Samuel 1: 17- 
27, I Kings 8th chapter, Psalms 23rd, 32nd, goth, 
gist, 103rd, 112th, t19th, and 139th, Proverbs 2nd, 

[ 109 ] 


THE BIBLE AND PRAYER 


3rd, 8th,and 12th chapters, Isaiah 53rd chapter, Mat- 
thew 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters, Acts 26th chapter, 
I Corinthians 13th and 15th chapters, James 4th 
chapter, and Revelation 5th and Oth chapters. In 
after years he wrote: “I consider this the most 
precious and, on the whole, the one essential part of 
my education.” 

The Scriptural examples of prayer are direct and 
intense. We think of the wrestling of Jacob and 
hear him say: “I will not let thee go, except thou 
bless me ” (Gen. 32: 26) ; and the cry of Bartimeus: 
“ Have mercy on me” (Mark 10: 48) ; Christ Him- 
self saying: “‘ If it be possible ” (Matt. 26: 39) ; 
and that great Scriptural exhortation, for ever call- 
ing us to prayer: “ Let us come boldly unto the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Each 





of us must come face to face with the Word of God. 


itself. This is the purpose of the written word, but 
God is forever writing—writing living epistles in 
the hearts of all who pray. 


[ 110 ] 


O Tuou Hoty One, before whom is loving- 
kindness and truth, cause thy face to shine upon us. 
We acknowledge our sins and bless Thee because 
Thou hast put away our sins. Search us; try us; 
lead us by thy light; set a watch at the door of our 
lips, and teach us the art of laying up thy word in 
our hearts. Amid the din and fascination of this 
fading world, our eyes look unto Thee, for we 
prefer Thee above all else, and our chief desire is 
to possess thy beauty. Receive our prayer as the 
incense of this holy worship between Thee and us 
and make our souls harps upon which only thy 
fingers shall play. Let all that is within us adore 
Thee for ever and ever, for unto Thee belong 
praise and dominion and glory for ever. Amen. 


[ 111 ] 


THOU art ever patient with me, as a father with the un- 
fulfilled promise of his child. I am dear to Thee, not 
mainly for the little that I do aright; but for my penitence 
after doing wrong; for my desire to do better; for what 
in due time with thy help I shall become. 

Help me to keep this humility I learn from Thee in my 
attitude toward my fellow men. May I never try to pass 
with them as better than Thou seest me to be. May I 
esteem them better than myself; having reverence and 
tenderness for all; pride and wuncharitableness toward 
none. . 
When enemies and censorious critics detect me in some 
fault, and try to break me down; then may the humility 
I have learned from Thee become my armour and defense. 
Knowing how light are their worst charges in comparison 
to what Thou knowest against me, and in spite of knowing 
still forgivest, still lovest; may I be strong in the con- 
fidence that no weakness acknowledged, no fault confessed, 
no mistake corrected no sin repented, can ever separate me 
from Thee, or frota the friends Thou givest to all who 
walk in true humility. Amen. 


—WiyiaAM De Wirt Hype (Abba Father—Revell). 


(372) ] 


XIV 
TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 


Pie is forever associated with tempta- 


tion. Human life is a warfare. It begins 

with the first cry of the infant and ends 

with the last sigh at the gate of death. Between 
these two extremes, human life is made. In this 
process of making, the best made life is that in 
which prayer has been the contending factor in the 
midst of the things that defile us. ‘‘ From within, 
from the heart of man, the designs of evil come: 
sexual vice, stealing, murder, adultery, lust, malice, 
deceit, sensuality, envying, slander, arrogance, reck- 
lessness, all these evils issue from within and they 
defile a man” (Mark 7: 21-23)."| We cannot con- 
quer by our own strength. We have tried it often 
and have failed just as often. But by prayer Divine 
power is brought into the struggle. Even then, we 
fail and become discouraged until the very roots 
within us are pulled up, and gradually, step by step, 
through patience and courage, the soul is again 
free. “ For it is God, who worketh in you both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). 
The frontiers of temptation, however severely en- 
ticing they may be, do not hurt us; it is when we 


1 Moffatt’s Translation. 
[ 113 ] 


TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 


pass the frontiers and go into the temptation itself 
that we become spiritually wounded. Thomas a 
Kempis says: ‘‘ The beginning of all temptation to 
evil is instability of temper and want of trust of 
God; for even as a ship without a helm is tossed 
about by the waves, so is a man who is careless and 
infirm of purpose tempted, now on this side, now on 
that. As fire testeth iron, so doth temptation the 
upright man. Oftentimes we know not what 
strength we have; but temptation revealeth to us 
what we are. Nevertheless, we must watch, espe- 
cially in the beginnings of temptation; for then is 
the foe the more easily mastered, when. he is not 
suffered to enter within the mind, but is met outside 
the door as soon as he hath knocked. Wherefore 
one saith: 


Check the beginnings; once thou might’st have cured, 
But now ’tis past thy skill, too long hath it endured. 


For first cometh to the mind the simple suggestion, 
then the strong imagination, afterward pleasure, 
evil affection, assent. And so, little by little, the 
enemy entereth in altogether, because he was not 
resisted at the beginning. And the longer a man — 
delayeth his resistance, the weaker he groweth, and 
the stronger groweth the enemy against him.” * 
The common weapon in temptation is ejaculatory 
prayer—just a single petition, calling for help. 
Perhaps, there are more prayers of this character 


—— 


1Thomas 4 Kempis. The Imitation of Christ. 
[ 114 ] 





TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 


than any other. It may be when we are with others 
or alone; but, when the habit of ejaculatory prayer 
is established in our lives we have gone a long way 
toward putting round about ourselves the defenses 
_of God, who is our refuge at all times; likewise use 
the great hymns. They are powerful appeals to 
spirituality. 

No one is free from temptation. Some have their 
severest struggle at the beginning of the Christian 
life; others, after being in the Christian life for 
many years; others have theirs at the end; and still 
others have a whole lifetime of struggle. Some 
have one weakness, some another; but all have a 
weak place where the foe enters. Some of us fail 
and fail wretchedly, others of us fail and try again. 
Through temptation we are taught, proved, 
humbled, and purified. We would not want to be 
without it, if we could. Not only is there an open 
door for our escape from every temptation, but God 
is always with us in the struggle. ‘‘ There hath no 
temptation taken you but such as is common to 
man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you 
to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with 
the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye 
may be able to bear it” (I Cor. 10:13). : 

We too frequently hold to our threadbare notions 
of Adam as being the normal man; he was not. 
The normal man is Christ. Through Him God has 
revealed our possibilities, leaving us a pattern of 
life that is the hope of the world. Rufus M. Jones 

[ 115 ] 


TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 


says: “‘ Christianity is essentially, I should say, a 
unique revelation of God. Here for the first time 
the race discovers that God identifies Himself with 
humanity, is in the stream of it, is suffering with us, 
is in mortal conflict with sin and evil, is conquering 
through the travail and tragedy of finite persons, 
and is eternally, in mind and heart and will, a God 
of triumphing Love. No texts adequately ‘ prove’ 
this mighty truth. We cannot tie it down to ‘ say- 
ings,’ though there are ‘sayings’ which declare it. 
The life of Jesus, the supreme decisions through 
which He expresses his purpose, the spirit which 
dominates Him and guides his decisive actions, 
make the truth plain that God meant that to Him 
and that his way of life revealed that kind of God.” ’ 

When we get this understanding of temptation we 
feel the challenge within us to holier living. James 
was so thrilled by it that he opened his epistle, ex- 
claiming, “ My brethren, count it all joy when ye 
fall into divers temptations ” (Jas.1:2). Likewise, 
Peter, in his first epistle, says: “ Beloved, think it 
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try 
you, as though some strange thing happened unto — 
you: but rejoice. inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be 
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” 
(I Pet. 4:12, 13). There is nothing in the wide 


*Rufus M. Jones. Spiritual Energies in Daily Life 
(Macmillan). 


[ 116 ] ; 


TEMPTATION AND PRAYER 


range of human experience that furnishes a parallel 
to the spiritual magnificence of the struggle in 
temptation, except the matchless life of Christ. He 
found his power of resistance in prayer. In his last 
great struggle—the struggle in the garden—He said 
to his disciples: “ Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter 
into temptation” (Mark 14:38). This is our only 
safety. Beset as we are with foes behind and be- 
fore, arrayed in spiritual warfare, we must venture 
into the experiences of the reality of God, not trust- 
ing to ourselves, but to Him, who neither failed nor 
was discouraged. 


O Gop, Thou guide of the humble, give us the 
spirit of wisdom that we may be saved from false 
choices. Lead us to walk humbly with Thee in the 
path of justice and mercy. Grant we beseech Thee 
that Christ may be formed in us and thereby all 
manner of sin be cast out of our hearts. In the 
midst of temptation give us courage to contend, and, 
if we falter, give us good sight that we may see the 
open door of escape, for except we are upheld by 
Thee we shall strive in vain for the crown of life 
which Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee. 
Scatter our sins as the morning clouds and let thy 
Holy Spirit so possess us that we may keep thy 
commandments unto the end; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 


Baek Ar 


O Lorn, give thy blessing, we pray Thee, to our daily 
work, that we may do it in faith and heartily, as to the 
Lord and not unto men. All our powers of body and mind 
are thine, and we would fain devote them to thy service. 
Sanctify them, and the work in which they are engaged; 
let us not be slothful, but fervent in spirit, and do Thou, 
O Lord, so bless our efforts that they may bring forth in 
us the fruits of true wisdom. ‘Teach us to seek after 
truth and enable us to gain it; but grant that we may ever 
speak the truth in love; that, while we know earthly 
things, we may know Thee, and be known by ‘Thee, 
through and in thy Son Jesus Christ. Give us this day 
thy Holy Spirit, that we may be thine in body and spirit 
in all our work and all our refreshments: through Jesus 
Christ thy Son, our Lord. Amen. Bs 


—TuHomas ArNnoiD (Great Souls at Prayer by Mary. 
W. Tileston—Allenson). 


[ 118 J 


XV 
COMMON DUTIES AND PRAYER 


HERE is no place in life where we so 
easily lose the sense of the consciousness 
of God as in the performance of our daily 
duties. If we keep the Morning Watch, we think 
of Him as there; if we attend public worship, we 
think of Him as there; and, if we go through the 
forests or walk on the ocean beach, especially if 
alone, we can easily think of God as there; but, 
when we go to the routine of daily duties,—the 
office, the shop, the factory, the court room, the 
classroom, the store, the market, the kitchen, or any 
other fields of household and business obligations,— 
our conscious mind is so occupied that it is difficult 
to conceive of God as even interested in the daily 
routine of our little, individual lives. 

But He is. Not a sparrow falls to the ground, 
nor does a blade of grass wither, without his notice. 
There is nothing too small in our lives but has the 
interest of God—the opening of a letter, the enter- 
ing of an account, the placing of a bolt, the purchase 
of an article, the laying of a brick, the opening of 
a book, the washing of a dish, or the greeting of an 
individual. By the practice of excluding God from 
the routine of daily duties. He becomes unreal to 

[ 119 ] 


COMMON DUTIES AND PRAYER 


us, and our neglect of Him proves disastrous to 
us. Spiritual values are easily forgot amid the rush 
and bustle of daily routine. The simplicity of 
Christianity lies in the task of daily duties. It is in 
this field we learn to forgive our enemies, to practice 
self-denial, to deal justly, to control our temper, to 
be kind to the needy, and to walk humbly with God. 
However virtuous and honourable we may appear 
when we are through with our daily routine, that 
virtue and honour are not ours unless they are 
practiced in the midst of the daily routine. Con- 
sciousness of God belongs at the counter for correct 
business as much as a customer for doing business. 
The practice of the presence of God is wonderfully 
emphasized in the little book of that title by Brother 
Lawrence.’ } 

The prayer attitude may be taken with us into 
every kind of task, however difficult, and vexing it 
may be, and it will make possible our adjustment 
to unpleasant circumstances. These are the ex- 
periences that interpret to us the new birth, the 
cross-bearing, the surrendered life, and the ever- 
lasting hope. Paul reminds us that’ all work is. 
primarily to God (Col. 3:23) and that practice of 
prayer is a continual experience (Col. 4:2). 
Wrongs are to be adjusted in the light of these 
facts. God is just, and his justice must be seen in 


*Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of 
God. 


Lii2ce! 


COMMON DUTIES AND PRAYER 


the attitudes of capital and labour, of employer and 
employee, and in the comradeship of team work. _ 
Public worship has its value, but emphasis here, 
which is on the spiritual values that must find out- 
lets of expression in the common duties of daily 
life, is of far more consequence than emphasis on 
public worship. William Law says: “It is very 
observable, that there is not one command in all the 
Gospel for public worship; and perhaps it is a duty 
that is least insisted upon in Scripture of any other. 
The frequent attendance at it is never so much as 
mentioned ‘in all the New Testament. Whereas 
that religion or devotion which is to govern the 
ordinary actions of our life, is to be found in almost 
every verse of Scripture. Our blessed Saviour and 
his Apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines that 
relate to common life. They call us to renounce the 
world, and differ in every temper and way of life, 
from the spirit and way of the world—to renounce 
all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its 
joys, and have no value for its happiness; to be as 
new born babes, that are born into a new state of 
things, to live as pilgrims in spiritual watching, in 
holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life; 
to take up our daily cross, to deny ourselves, to 
profess the blessedness of mourning, to seek the 
blessedness of poverty of spirit; to forsake the pride 
and vanity of riches, to take no thought for the 
morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, 
to rejoice in worldly sufferings; to reject the lust of 
[ 121 ] 


COMMON DUTIES AND PRAYER 


the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; 
to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies, 
and to love mankind as God loveth them; to give 
up our whole hearts and affections to God, and 
strive to enter through the straight gate into a lite 
of eternal glory. 

‘This is the common devotion which our blessed 
Saviour taught, in order to make it the common 
life of all Christians. Is it not, therefore, exceed- 
ing strange, that people should place so much piety 
in the attendance upon public worship, concerning 
which there is not one precept of our Lord’s to be 
found, and yet neglect these common duties of our 
ordinary life, which are commanded in every page 
of the Gospel? I call these duties the devotion of 
our common life, because if they are practiced, they 
must be made parts of our common life; they can 
have no place anywhere else.” * 

The change of the world lies not so much in the 
conduct of people at public worship on Sunday, as 
in the conduct of people in common duties of every- 
day life. The reason why the world has not changed 
more since the advent of Christianity is because the 
prayer attitude has not had a place in our common 
duties. If the whole Church were to adopt the 
practice of real prayer, schism would forthwith be 
healed and racial animosities would be removed; 
likewise, if Christians in all nations would give 





* William Law. A Serious Call. 


[ 122 ] 


COMMON DUTIES AND PRAYER 


themselves to the practice of real prayer, war would 
forthwith be abolished and proper industrial rela- 
tions would be established between employer and 
employee. None of these things will attain to per- 
manency apart from real prayer. Prayer is the 
way. Instances are found here and there where 
this attitude has been maintained, but multitudes of 
Christians live just like people who are not Chris- 
tians—not immoral, profane, or intemperate, but 
possessing the same temper, the same attitude, and 
seeking the same end. Nothing can change this 
condition but prayer. The common duties of life 
are the shrines where prayer is to transform work 
and workers until we become conscious of the 
Living Presence and possess abounding joy. 


O Gop, our Father, gracious and merciful, give 
us such vision of the duties of our common life that 
we may see in them altars of daily sacraments where 
our souls may become lamps, refilled and illuminated 
by Thee. Lead us into the experiences of humility, 
self-denial, renunciation of the world, consciousness 
of spiritual need, and heavenly affection, in order to 
overcome worldly temper, sensual pleasures, and the 
pride of life. Plant in us thy Spirit that we may 
see the beauties of our common life and interpret 
them in a godly walk with our fellows; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

| [ 123 ] 


Fortiry my soul, blessed Jesus, with the same spirit of 
submission with which Thou underwentest the death of the 
Cross, that I may receive all events with resignation to the 
will of God; that I may receive troubles, afflictions, dis- 
appointments, sickness, and death itself, without amaze- 
ment. Let this be the constant practice of my life, to be 
pleased with all thy choices, that when sickness and death 
approach, I may be prepared to submit my will to the will 
of my Maker. And O that, in the meantime, my heart 
may always go along with my lips in this petition—thy will 
be done. Amen. 

—BisHorp WiLson (Sacra Privata—Methuen). 


[ 124 ] 


XVI 
THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


HE world throbs with pain. It is the 
common experience of mankind, irre- 
spective of nationality or class. Scientific 

attempts have been made through the centuries to 
alleviate it; likewise, healing cults have multiplied 
around the world. That both science and the heal- 
ing cults have cures to their credit is heartily 
recognized. The greatest physician, however, is 
Christ. He outdistanced all healers and stands 
alone as the only healer before whom all diseases 
cowered. | 

While many are clamouring to heal the sick as 
Christ did, it is well to remember that there are 
many things in the life of Christ to be possessed by 
us of far more importance than healing the sick. 
It was not primary in his ministry. John the 
Baptist was the greatest of all prophets, but he did 
not heal the sick; neither does it appear that Christ 
selected his Apostles from any of those whom He 
cured, and, according to Scriptural records, those 
whom Christ cured passed out of sight, so far as 
value of service to Him was concerned. But Christ 
did heal the sick, and his healing was based upon the 
fact of Himself. 

[ 125 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


Because of who He is, his cures are altogether 
possible and probable. To deny either the physical 
or moral possibility, or their probability, makes God 
unfree. But God is a free Spirit, immanent and 
transcendent, and, therefore, He is not bound to 
certain limitations, as men count limitations. The 
coming of Christ among men was a sufficient oc- 
casion for the working of cures upon a race to 
whom God sought to reveal Himself as God and 
Father. The physical possibility of the cures of 
Christ could rest simply upon the absolute and im- 
mutable will of God, but immutability must not be 
confused with rigidity and fixedness. The steadi- 
ness of God’s unchangeable purpose includes, and 
even requires variety, in execution. The healings 
wrought by Christ furnish one of these varieties. 

It is, likewise, so morally. A thing may be phys- 
ically possible, but not morally possible. In the 
instance of the healings wrought by Christ, they 
are morally possible because the moral attributes of - 
God are holiness and love. » We could not think of 
God except in these terms. However these terms— 
holiness and love—may be defined, there must be a 
general agreement that any definition of them would 
include God’s gift of Himself to his creatures. 
Consequently, moved by the holiness and the love 
of God, the will of God worked in Christ for the © 
healing of the sick. 

Also, the healings wrought by Christ possess a 
large degree of antecedent probability expressed in 

[ 126 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


ele a Bs 


the five great words—“ providence,” “ revelation,” 
“prayer,” “redemption,” and “ fellowship.” These 
words stand for pathways over which God and 
man have had communion. They interpret the 
mightiest experiences of the human soul. God’s 
' providence was the beginning of man’s history, or 
there would have been no history of man for which 
to have a beginning. It is, likewise, so of revelation. 
Both his providence and his revelation have been 
approved through all ages. A multitude of altars 
crowd the world. They are the places of prayer. 
The spirit of prayer comes from God and that 
spirit presses for entrance upon our souls. It is 
not that our prayers are changing God, but God is 
so changing us that we are finding in his will the 
highest joy of human experience. ‘“ Prayer,” .says 
Brierley, “is the gracious circulating of Divine ideas 
through the human soul.’ Prayer brings us to 
want what God wants us to have. This easily 
breaks through the mechanical theory that the uni- 
verse is a closed system. It means that God is 
entering into personal converse with man, and that 
man is answering back. Both redemption and fel- 
lowship are antecedently probable and morally nec- 
essary in order that God should make Himself 
known to his creatures as Lord and Saviour. With 
this rich background of human experience the heal- 
ings wrought by Jesus are antecedently probable as 
recorded in the Scriptures. 

In this brief survey of the possibility and arobe 

[ 127 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


ability of the healings wrought by Christ, it is shown 
that his cures stand apart from all others, as He 
stands apart from all other healers, saying to us, as 
He said to the disciples of John the Baptist: ‘‘ The 
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are 
raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached 
to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be 
offended in me” (Matt. 11:5, 6). 

Many, if not most, diseases are mental. They are 
frequently stubborn and sometimes become so seri- 
ous as to prove fatal. In these fields the healing 
cults appear to have largely got their results, and in 
saying this, it is no discredit to them, but only to 
indicate their field of operation. It is difficult to 
make a definite classification as to which diseases 
are, and which are not, affected by suggestion. We 
are, at once, involved in two great unsolved mys- — 
teries. The first has to do with the relation of 
thought to the brain, and the second has to do with 
the processes of suggestion. We know that the mind 
affects the body and that the body, in turn, affects 
the mind. They are interdependent with pathways 
abounding in mystery. Suggestion to the subcon- 
scious mind appears to be more powerful if neither 
the attendant nor the patient is working to secure it. 
It is established in one instance and fails of estab- 
lishment in another. If confidence can supplant 
fear, a long step has been made toward recovery. 
Religious motives furnish the most powerful ap- 

[ 128 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


peal, especially to one who is sick, and the healing 
is frequently attended with most fruitful results as 
to future physical health and spiritual experience. 
All of this has therapeutic value which merits com- 
mendation in a world where sin and disease are so 
common, Prayer and faith have wrought results 
in religious experience, which have given calmness 
and confidence to the subconscious mind, stimulat- 
ing the activities of mental health, which profoundly 
affects the state of the body. 

But where there is a broken bone or bone trouble 
or a dangerous fever or some similar disease, sci- 
ence must minister through skilled surgeons and 
skilled physicians, and it has ministered in amazing 
satisfaction to the cures of multitudes. Surgeons 
have fought great battles over the operating table, 
as physicians have in the sick room. Pain has been 
wonderfully alleviated and multitudes have been 
snatched from the jaws of death, and given health 
where health had been despaired of. If the Apostle 
Paul could call the civil officer “a minister of God 
to thee for good,” how much more “ the beloved 
physician” should be called a minister of God to 
you for health? The service of the physician and 
surgeon is sacred, and is preéminently the work of 
God, whether science recognizes it or not. It is 
one of the fields in which God is training men in 
kindness for service to their fellows. Sir Oliver 
Lodge says: “ You might almost as well try to cure 
disease by prayer without treatment, as to try to 

[ 129 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


cure it by treatment without prayer. You must use 
both.” | | 

The surgeon or physician, however, who ignores 
all spiritual help in his practice belongs in the class 
of those healing cults that ignores material help for 
all diseases. Multitudes of Christian physicians and 
surgeons, however, take their patients to God in 
prayer. One of the greatest defects in the educa- 
tional training of the physician and surgeon is the 
too frequent absence of the spiritual. So: mani- 
fest is this that it is not infrequent that young men, 
spiritually inclined at the beginning of their edu- 
cational course, are anything else but spiritual at 
the close. Some of the most successful physicians 
and surgeons are as forgetful of God’s part in their 
healings, as irreligious farmers are of God’s part 
in their farming. Neither stops to give God thanks. 
Herein lies the goodness and greatness of God. He 
gives to all his love and care. “He maketh his 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). 

However widely we may differ about these mat- 
ters, we cannot escape the conclusion that healing 
the sick is a part of the ministry of the Church— 
not only in providing hospitals and sanitariums and 
physicians and surgeons and nurses, but sometimes 
when there are none of these, just as God’s grace 
is not confined to the Church, but righteousness 
may spring forth where there is no Church. God 
is not limited, however definitely we may be. There 

[ 130 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


was but little science in medicine and surgery in the 
days of the Apostles, and that little was very crude; 
consequently, prayer functioned in healing inde- 
pendent of their help. But because these sciences 
have developed and have been a blessing to man- 
kind, that is no reason that prayer should be ex- 
cluded, either from the sick room with physicians 
and surgeons or, in some instances, where theré are 
neither physicians nor surgeons. 

We cannot think of God as the loving Father in 
any other terms than his desire for the health and 
happiness of all mankind. He, likewise, desires that 
we shall have the comforts of life—not that one 
shall grab and get so much of this world’s posses- 
sions as to deprive others of equal comforts, but 
that all may have every need supplied. Just as 
the world is abnormal in comforts,—some having 
and others not having,—so it is in health—some 
are healthy and others are always in the grip of 
disease. By the help of God, we are to go to the 
root of both evils, contending for the right of every 
man to have a chance and, likewise, seeking health 
for all mankind. 

Immediately following the day of Pentecost, the 
ministry of healing was practiced throughout the 
Apostolic age iCActs 3:1-16; 5:15) 16; 8:6, 7; 
9: 32-41; 14:8-10; 16:16-18, etc.). It was af- 
firmed then that the prayer of faith saved the sick, 
and James advised the combining of prayer with the 
ordinary medical treatment of oil (Jas. 5: 14-16). 

[ 131 ] 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


We may use drugs, surgery, diet, manipulations, 
psychical methods, or devotional and sacramental 
means; but, in all of these, faith may, and often 
does, create powerfully in the patient a disposition 
toward health. Just as we are trying to learn how 
to live spiritually, we must, likewise, learn to live 
biologically. To do either or both we must be in- 
strueted. Hence, preventive measures in both 
spirituality and biology hold priority over cures. 
However, in the presence of disease faith is a great 
factor. On one occasion the Apostles were unable 
to heal for the lack of it (Matt. 17:21). Perhaps, 
we need a ministry of pain or mortification, such 
as a thorn in the flesh as Paul had—blindness, 
epilepsy, malaria, or some painful disease—in 
order to know the abundant grace of God. “ My 
grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is 
made perfect in weakness” (II Cor. 12:9). But 
whatever our explanations may be, prayers for the 
sick, whether they be absent or present, are a 
part of the ministry of the Church. To come be- 
fore God for such a cause, there must be penitence 
of heart, humility of spirit, and all absence of 
self-interest. If it be talked about, as the work of 
some individual, the transaction is ruined. ‘“‘ He 
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (I Cor. 
Ei 31 )s 

*Some conclude it was a defective sight in consequence 


of Gal. 6:11; Lightfoot suggested epilepsy and Ramsay 
suggested malaria. 


[ 132 ] : 


THE MINISTRY OF HEALING 


Out of such an experience the healing may come, 
or for some reason, it may not come. “If we ask 
any thing according to his will, He heareth us” 
(I John 5:14). In the great prayer of Christ be- 
fore his crucifixion, He said: “‘ Not my will, but 
thine, be done”’ (Luke 22:42). The triumph of 
the will of God in Christ is a greater fact than his 
crucifixion on the cross. So it must be in our sick- 
ness. Nevertheless, there are instances where 
prayer may function in free conformity to the prom- 
ise of our Lord: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall 
he do also; and greater works than these shall he 
do; because I go unto my Father ” (John 14:12). 





O TuHou GREAT PHysIcIAN, heal us in soul and 
body. Bless all physicians, surgeons, nurses, hos- 
pitals, and sanitarituns ; but let us never forget that 
before these were Thou didst heal the sick and 
bless mankind with health. Grant us wisdom to 
combine what these have found for our health and 
give to them the benediction of prayer; likewise, O 
Lord, help us to possess the courage of faith that 
will not stagger at thy promises, but ask direct for 
healing power. If it be thy will that we carry a 
thorn in the flesh, make thy grace be sufficient for us 
and, when we come to leave the body, make our 
home going as natural as tides go out to the sea; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


[ 133 ] 


I witt bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall con- 
tinually be in my mouth. . 

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble 
shall hear thereof, and be glad. 

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name 
together. 

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me 
from all my fears. 

They looked upon Him, and were lightened: and their 
facesowercrnetachanied | 

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved 
him out of all his troubles. 

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
fear Him, and delivereth them. 

—Psalm 34: I-7. 


[ 134 if 


XVII 
/ pegs RUB ke Opa td 


METHOD that has been used for many 
centuries as a powerful and practical help 
toward a more complete surrender to 
Christ is withdrawing for a day, or perhaps for 
several days, for meditation, self-examination, and 
prayer. It may be at some regular time or occa- 
sionally. Thomas Chalmers, of Scotland, made it 
a practice once a month to go apart for a whole 
day; others have had similar practices. Annual re- 
treats, especially when the groups are made up of 
persons from many communions, are attended with 
great blessing, if they are taken seriously and en- 
tered into courageously. It is a time of drawing 
near to God. In the opening of a retreat, such 
passages of Scripture as the sixth chapter of Isaiah 
and the fifth chapter of Revelation may be read. 
However a retreat may be conducted, the chief 
elements are meditation, self-examination, and 
prayer. It is work, as is all real prayer. It is both 
humiliating and refreshing: humiliating, because it 
is the supplication of one who is conscious of his 
weakness and helplessness,—‘ Have mercy upon 
me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: ac- 
cording unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
[ 135 ] 


A RETREAT 


blot out my transgressions ” (Psa. 51: 1),—and re- 
freshing, because God satisfies all who come hum- 
bly unto Him—‘“ As the hart panteth after the 
water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee” 
(Psa. 42:1). It is, likewise, courageous. A re- 
treat means. self-examination—a sincere and 
thorough observation of oneself in the conscious- 
ness that Christ is observing with us. A definite 
time set apart for such experience contributes to 
health of soul. 

Whenever the time may be, it should be when 
the mind is alert and ready for some fresh task. 
The address or addresses should be brief and sug- 
gestive of closer fellowship with Christ. Much 
time should be given to silent worship. From the 
beginning to the close a retreat should have about 
it the atmosphere of real prayer, with a definite 
perseverance toward the Living Presence for that 
peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7). 
We should always go immediately from a retreat 
to our task, 

There are certain guide-posts in a retreat, espe- 
cially when a retreat covers several days, that 
should have consideration. These may be enumer- 
ated as follows: 

(1) Thoughts on God as our heavenly Father. 
“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou 
hast sent” (John 17:3). God is the basis of our 
experience. After defining and combining his at- 

[ 136 ] 


ARE TREAT 


tributes, all definitions and combinations break 
down, for God is greater than the sum of all his 
attributes. “Holy and reverend is his name” 
(Psa. 111:9). In our meditations we must ex- 
amine ourselves as to our attitude of reverence, 
both toward God and toward all mankind, irre- 
spective of races or classes; likewise, reverence for 
ourselves, for we are his workmanship (Eph. 
2:10). Humour is healthy, but it must not drop 
to the level of the obscene or be used irreverently 
of God and mankind, neither should we make one 
of God’s children the subject of constant satire. 
We must practice reverence. 

(2) Thoughts on Jesus Christ as our hope. His 
name is “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, 
God with us” (Matt. 1:23). He is our teacher 
(John 3:2). He was tempted in all points like as 
we are (Heb. 4:15). He made choice of poverty 
(II Cor. 8:9). He lived by the will of God (Matt. 
Poms ypeetiersuttered for use (Labets2n2r). * His 
religion is a covenant of faith and pain. “ For 
unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not 
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for his 
sake” (Phil. 1:29). If we are eager for money, 
remember it was said of Him: He “ hath not where 
to lay his head” (Luke 9:58); if we are unfor- 
giving, remember He prayed for his persecutors: 
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what 
they do” (Luke 23:34); if we long for a life of 
ease and personal pleasure, remember that He says: 

[ 137 ] 


A RETREAT 


“No man, having put his hand to the plough, and 
looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 
9:62). However painful may be the contrast be- 
tween Him and us, we must be courageous enough 
to face the differences, and ask ourselves if we are 
really willing to be more like Him. Because we 
have accepted a mild form of Christianity, it is no 
reason we should continue this mild form; we must 
follow Christ. “If any man will come after Me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, 
and follow Me” (Luke 9: 23). 

(3) Thoughts on the Holy Spirit as our com- 
forter. Jesus says: “ He shall glorify Me; for He 
shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto thee” 
(John 16:14). Paul says: “If any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 
8:9). The universal hindrances to the reign of 
the Spirit in us are the lust of the. flesh, the lust 
of the eyes, and the pride of life. These are our 
battle lines. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify 
the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). 
“The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever ” 
(in fohni2et7.). 

(4) Thoughts on the Church as composed of 
followers of Christ. “‘ Christ loved the Church, and 
gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). His love is 
upon all, however divided by theological contro- 
versies, national lines, and racial peculiarities. We 
must examine our hearts as to our attitude toward 

[ 138 ] 


A RETREAT 


other Christians, remembering that Christ says: “A 
new commandment I give unto you, That ye love 
one another; as I have loved you” (John 13: 34). 
Our lack of missionary enthusiasm and Christian 
unity is due to our lack of spirituality. Therefore, 
we must not be afraid to express repentance both 
for our indifference in witnessing for Christ and 
for our unbrotherly attitudes toward those who are 
following Christ by other interpretations than our 
own. If we have not learned to work with others, 
we must examine our hearts to see if the fault does 
not lie with us, rather than with others. Over us 
still hovers the prayer of Jesus: “I pray 
that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in 
Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in 
Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent 
Me” (John 17:21). 

(5) Thoughts on the word of God as spiritual 
nourishment. “Thy words were found, and I did 
eat them” (Jer. 15:16). We only know the word 
when we practice it. We must examine our hearts 
to find why it is that we do not take the word of 
God more seriously, why we content ourselves with 
mild interpretations, and why we lack the courage 
to apply it to our own lives. Wrote Edmond 
Scherer, whose stumbling faith could not reach be- 
yond human life: “If there is anything certain in 
this world, it is that the destinies of the Bible are 
linked with the destinies of holiness on earth.” The 
Psalmist says: “ Thy word have I laid up in my 

[ 130 ] 


AREER EAGLE 


heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psa. 
LIO211): | . 

(6) Thoughts on the reality of sin. ‘If we say 
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the 
truth is not in us” (I John 1:8). The sins that 
are quite obvious are sexual vice, impurity, sen- 
suality, jealousy, dissensions, quarrels, rivalry, tem- 
per, factions, envy, party spirit, covetousness, lazi- 
ness, false-witness bearing, retaliation, revenge, 
revelry, and the like (Gal. 5: 20, 21). These must 
be courageously faced by us, examining thoroughly 
their worth and consequences. Stock must be 
taken as to how large a place any of these has in 
our lives. The review must be tempered with 
charity, but we must command our will to such 
firmness that there will be a definite renunciation 
and abandonment. “If we confess our sins, He is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness ” (I John 1:9). 
The examination of conscience must be so thorough 
that conscience will be cleansed by Divine grace. 
God’s forgiveness is always greater than our sins. 

(7) Thoughts on the disaster of temptation. 
“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas- 
phemies: these are the things which defile a man” 
(Matt. 15:19). Our common experience has 
taught us that the danger lies in taking pleasure in 
the thought of this, that, and the other sin, whether 
it be retaliation, revenge, sensuality, covetousness, 

[ 140 ] 


e 


A RETREAT 


jealousy, or what not. Our self-examination must 
not be general; it must not be evasive; it must be 
definite and tangible, inquiring as to how fre- 
quently we have invited temptation, or how fre- 
quently we have put up no protest when it ap- 
proached, or how willingly we have yielded to its 
demands. It is the struggle common to all man- 
kind and differs only in that some are weaker at 
one point than another. We must so examine our- 
selves that our weakest point may be made strong. 
It demands courage. We must strike hard. Then, 
set a watch, and pray that we may not go into the 
struggle (Luke 22:40). Neither the severity of 
the temptation nor its continuance should discour- 
age us in continuing to try, nor estrange us from 
our heavenly Father. “There hath no temptation 
taken you but such as is common to man: but God 
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
above that ye are able; but will with the tempta- 
tion also make a way to escape, that ye may be 
ablerta. bear it.” (I: Cor. 10:13): 

(8) Thoughts on the power of prayer. “ Ask 
and it shall be given you. . . . If ye then, be- 
ing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your Father who is 
in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” 
(Matt. 7:7-11). However busy we may be, the 
great principles of right living must not be ob- 
scured by our activities, nor must they so distract 
us that we do not find time to think of God and our 

[ 141 ] 


A RETREAT 


relations to Him. “Habits of dissipation and 
frivolity are peculiarly fatal to prayer. It should 
not need a violent wrench to recall us to the Divine 
Presence. The only way to pray well is to pray 
always. If our ordinary trend of thought is on a 
different plane from what is required in prayer, 
we cannot be surprised if we find prayer difficult. 
But the Christian who is inwardly and outwardly 
devout and recollected, comes to look on every- 
thing more and more in God, to pass easily from 
the creature to the Creator.” * A retreat furnishes 
time for going over carefully the things of our or- 
dinary occupations—not giving ourselves to day- 
dreaming, but facing squarely, by prayer, the actual 
facts of the ordinary affairs of every-day life, and 
judging ourselves as we would judge another, were 
he doing what we are doing. The soul must make 
its approach to God in the attitude of genuine peni- 
tence and thanksgiving. 

(9) Thoughts on the Lord’s Supper as a cove- 
nant of grace. “To prepare for man upon this 
accursed earth a banquet of heavenly food—that 
cost Him much,” says Andrew Murray. “ Nothing 
less than the life and blood of his Son, to take away 
the curse and to open up to them the right and the 
access to heavenly blessings. Nothing less than the. 
body and the blood of the Son of God could give 
life to lost men. O my soul, ponder the wonders 


*Cuthbert Lattey, S. J. Thy Love and Thy Grace 
(Herder, London). 


[ 142 ] 


A RETREAT 


bee | 


of this royal banquet.” * As we look upon the sym- 
bols of this spiritual mystery, it is a call to the 
crucifixion of self. Paul says: “I am crucified 
with Christ”? (Gal. 2:20). And of all Christians 
he says: “‘ They that are Christ’s have crucified the 
flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). 
Our difficulty 1s in remaining crucified; but here 
again, a retreat challenges our right to lay down the 
cross and to abandon the crucified life. Out of the 
atmosphere of Calvary grows the fruit of the Spirit, 
which is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, 
generosity, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control 
(Gal. 5:22, 23). In the presence of this symbol 
of his sufferings, we take stock of our spiritual 
growth. Christ must ever be the center of our 
meditation. In partaking of these symbols, we 
have the consciousness both of the remission of our 
sins and of the Living Presence (Matt. 26: 28; 
28:20). Henceforth, we are hid with Christ in 
God (Col. 3:3). For us, He sanctified Himself 
(John 17:17). For his sake, we, in turn, must 
prove our love for Him by the sanctifying of our- 
selves into the mystery of the Cross. Only in this 
atmosphere are we able to interpret at all the thir- 
teenth chapter of first Corinthians, which may be 
read and reread in our meditations at a retreat. 
(10) Thoughts on spiritual resolution. After a 
full review of our meditation and self-examination 
and prayer, and that without haste, we should de- 


*Andrew Murray. The Lord’s Table (Nisbet, London). 
[ 143 ] 


A RETREAT 


liberately resolve to be more than we have been be- 
fore. The resolution should be definite, perhaps 
written out with no witness but God. It may hap- 
pen that the resolution will be broken a short while 
after it is made, leaving us discouraged and con- 
science stricken. We must, therefore, resolve again 
—until seventy times seven is the way Christ talks 
about it (Matt. 18:22). There is no limit. Brown- 
ing well says :— 


When the fight begins within himself, | 
A man’s worth something. 


That which is primary in us is not what we say or 
do, but what we are—our character, and our out- 
look upon life—all life—upon time and eternity. 
Therefore, the call is to ourselves: ‘‘ Choose you 
this day whom ye will serve” (Josh. 24:15). The 
fight is on. We must turn our backs to the foe 
and remember that we are in Christ. Paul says: 
“T cannot understand my own actions; I do not act 
as I want to act; on the contrary, I do what I 
detest...) 42 In me'(that 1s;.an omy) flesh 
good dwells, I know; the wish is there, but not the 
power of doing what is right. I cannot be good 
as I want to be, and I do wrong against my wishes. 
Well, if I act against my wishes, it is not I who 
do the deed but sin that dwells within me. So this 
is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is 
right, but wrong is all I can manage; I cordially 
agree with God’s law, so far as my inner self is 
[ 144 ] 


A RETREAT 


concerned, but then I find quite another law in my 

members which conflicts with the law of my mind 
and makes me a prisoner to sin’s law that resides 
in my members. (Thus, left to myself, I serve the 
law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I 
serve the law of sin.) Miserable wretch that I am! 
Who will rescue me from this body of death? God 
will! Thanks be to Him through Jesus Christ our 
Lord!” * (Rom. 7: 15-25). 


ee re 


O Gop, whose way is altogether perfect, blot out 
our transgressions according to the multitude of 
thy tender mercies, and renew a right spirit within 
us. Thou knowest that we want to do that which 
is right, but we are frequently held in the thraldom 
of sin. We understand neither thyself nor our- 
selves. Our ideals:are holy, but we acknowledge 
the lack of power to establish these ideals in our 
lives. O Thou Redeeming God, rescue us from this 
body of death, stand with us in the strife, endue us 
with thy grace, and draw us to the mind of Jesus 
Christ that He may be formed in us, and that Thou 
mayest own us as thy children with Him, thy Son, 
for surely thy goodness and lovingkindness shall 
follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall 
dwell in thy house for ever. Amen. 


* Moffatt’s Translation. 


[ 145 ] 


Hoiy FATHER, we are conscious of sins that make us 
unworthy of thy love. We have followed too much the 
devices and desires of our own hearts. We have no worth 
that Thou shouldst accept us. Yet even in the midst of our’ 
ill desert, we are made aware by thy holy. Word that if 
with all our hearts we truly seek Thee, we shall not seek 
in vain. Fulfil to us in this hour, we pray Thee, this 
gracious promise. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

—Hersert L. WILLETT AND CHARLES CLAYTON Morrison 

(The Daily Altar—Christian Century Press). 


[ 146 ] 


XVIII 
SELECTED PSALMS 
PENITENTIAL PSALMS 





“An Answer to Prayer” * 

O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither 
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 

Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: 
O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 

My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, 
how long? 

Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for 
thy mercies’ sake. 

For in death there is no remembrance of Thee: in 
the grave who shall give Thee thanks ? 

I am weary with my groaning; all the night make 
I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. 

Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth 
old because of all mine enemies. 

Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for 
the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. 

The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord 
will receive my prayer. 

Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: 
let them return and be ashamed suddenly. 

—Psalm 6. 


Sees bee G. Moulton. The Medern Reader’s Bible 
(Macmillan). 


[ 147 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


“ Felicitations to the Forgiven” 

Blessed is he whose transgression is SOreiyeth 
whose sin is covered. 

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth 
not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through 
my roaring all the day long. 

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: 
my moisture is turned into the drought of summer, 

I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine in- 
iquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my 
transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest 
the iniquity of my sin. 

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto 
Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found: surely 
in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh 
unto him. 

Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve 
me from trouble; Thou halt compass me about with 
songs of deliverance. 

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way 
which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. 

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have 
no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with 
bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. 

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that 
trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. 

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: 
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. 

—Psalm 32. 


Ads B. Rotherham. Studies in the Psalms (Allenson). 
Lara 


PENITENTIAL PSALMS 


An Elegy of a Troubled Heart 


I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin 
not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a 
bridle, while the wicked is. before me. 

I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even 
from good; and my sorrow was stirred. 

My heart was hot within me; while I was musing 
the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, 

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the meas- 
ure of my days, what it is; that I may know how 
frail I am. 7 

Behold, Thou hast made my days as a hand- 
breadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee: 
verily every man at his best state is altogether 
vanity. : 

Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely 
they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, 
and knoweth not who shall gather them. 

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in 
Thee. 

Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me 
not the reproach of the foolish. 

I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because 
Thou didst it. 

Remove thy stroke away from me: I am con- 
sumed by the blow of thine hand. 

When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for 
iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away 
like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. 

[ 149 ] 


SH LEC TED TRS plein 


Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my 
cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a 
stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my 
fathers were. 

O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I 
go hence, and be no more. | 

—Psalm 39. 





“Corruption Within and Foes Without’ * 

O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither 
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 

For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand 
presseth me sore. 

There is no soundness in my flesh because of 
thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones 
because of my sin. 

For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a 
heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 

My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my 
foolishness. 

I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go 
mourning all the day long. 

For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: 
and there is no soundness in my flesh. 

I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by 
reason of the disquietness of my heart. 

Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groan- 
ing is not hid from Thee. 


*Richard G. Moulton. The Modern Readers Bible 
(Macmillan). 


[ 150 ] 


PENTTENTIALSPSAEMS 


My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for 
the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. 

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my 
sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. 

They also that seek after my life lay snares for 
me; and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous 
things, and imagine deceits all the day long. 

But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a 
dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 

Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in 
whose mouth are no reproofs. 

For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope: Thou wilt hear, 
O Lord my God. 

For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should 
rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they mag- 
nify themselves against me. 

For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is con- 
tinually before me. 

For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry 
for my sin. 

But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: 
and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. 

They also that render evil for good are mine 
adversaries ; because I follow the thing that good is. 

Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far 
from me. 

Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation. 

—Psalm 38. 


[ 151 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


The Prodigal’s Psalm 


Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy 
lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of 
thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and 
cleanse me from my sin. , 

For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin 
is ever before me. 

Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done 
this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified 
when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou 
judgest. 

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did 
my mother conceive me. 

Behold, Thou desirest truth in the ree parts: 
and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know 
wisdom. | 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash 
me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones 
which Thou hast broken may rejoice. 

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine 
iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a 
right spirit within me. 

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take 
not thy Holy Spirit from me. 

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and up- 
hold me with thy free Spirit. 

[ 152 ] 


PENITENTIAL PSALMS 


Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and 
sinners shall be converted unto Thee. 

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou 
God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud 
of thy righteousness. 

O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall 
shew forth thy praise. 

For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give 
it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a 
broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not 
despise. 

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build 
Thou the walls of Jerusalem. 

Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of 
righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt 
offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine 


altar. 
—Psalm 51. 





The Sighing of the Disconsolate 

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come 
unto Thee. 

Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am 
in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day 
when I call answer me speedily. 

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my 
bones are burned as an hearth. 

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so 
that I forget to eat my bread. 

[ 153 ] 


SELECTEDIESAUMS 


By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones 
cleave to my skin. 

I am like a pelican of the eraldead eee I am like 
an owl of the desert. 

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the 
housetop. 

Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they 
that are mad against me are sworn against me. 

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my 
drink with weeping, | 

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for 
Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 

My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I 
am withered like grass. 

But Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and 
thy remembrance unto all generations. 

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for 
the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and 
favour the dust thereof. 

So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, 
and all the kings of the earth thy glory. 

When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall 
appear in his glory. 

He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and 
not despise their prayer. 
This shall be written for the generation to come: 
and the people which shall be created shall praise the 

Lord. 
For He hath looked down from the height of his 
[ 154 ] 


PENTIEN TIAL PSALMS 


sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the 
earth ; 

To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose 
those that are appointed to death; 

To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his 
praise in Jerusalem ; 

When the people are gathered together, and the 
kingdoms, to serve the Lord. 

He weakened my strength in the way; He short- 
ened my days. 

I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst 
of my days: thy years are throughout all genera- 
tions. 

Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: 
and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 

They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all 
of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture 
shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: 

But Thou art the same, and thy years shall have 
no end. 

The children of thy servants shall continue, and 
their seed shall be established before Thee. 

—Psalm 102. 





“A Pauline Psalm on Forgiveness’’* 
Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O 
Lord. 3 
Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to 
the voice of my supplications. 


* Martin Luther. 
[ 155 ] 


SLLECTED PSALMS 


If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, 
who shall stand ¢ : . 

But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou 
mayest be feared. 

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in 
his word do I hope. 

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that 
watch for the morning: I say, more than they that 
watch for the morning. 

Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord 
there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemp- 
tion. 

And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. 

—Psalm 130. 





The Lifting Up of the Soul in Distress 

Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my sup- 
plications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in 
thy righteousness. 

And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for 
in thy sight shall no man living be justified. 

For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath 
smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made 
me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been 
long dead. | 

Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; 
my heart within me is desolate. 

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all 
thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. 

[ 156 ] 


PENITENTIAL PSALMS 


I stretch forth my hands unto Thee: my soul 
thirsteth after Thee, as a thirsty land. 

Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth: 
hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them 
that go down into the pit. 

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morn- 
ing; for in Thee do I trust: cause me to know the 
way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul 
unto Thee. 

Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee 
unto Thee to hide me. 

Teach me to do thy will; for Thou art my God: 
thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of up- 
rightness. 

Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: for 
thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. 

—Psalm 143. 


[ 157 ] 


My Faruer, I thank Thee for all the mercies of the 
past. Quicken my memory that I may recall them: May I 
see the way of grace along which Thou hast in mercy led 
me! May thy mercy awake my praise! I turn to the day’s 
work, I turn to the earning of my daily bread. May I go 
to it as to prayer! May my labour be an act of worship! 
May the spirit of my toil rise as acceptable fragrance to 
Thee! Father of lights, I thank Thee for every one who 
brings me any illumination. For all who bring me sug- 
gestion, counsel, warning; for all who help me by voice or 
by pen; for all who lead me into a larger life, I give Thee 
the praise and glory. Amen. . 

—J. H. Jowerr (Yet Another Day—Revell). 


[ 158 ] P 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 





An Anthem of Remembrance 


I will extol Thee, O Lord; for Thou hast lifted me 
up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 

O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast 
healed me. 

O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the 
grave: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not 
go down to the pit. 

Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give 
thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his 
favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but 
joy cometh in the morning. 

And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be 
moved. | 

Lord, by thy favour Thou hast made my mountain 
to stand strong: Thou didst hide thy face, and I was 
troubled. 

I cried to Thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I 
made supplication. 

What profit is there in my blood, when I go down 
to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it 
declare thy truth? 

Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, 
be Thou my helper. 

Thou hast turned for me my mnie into danc- 

[ 159 ] 


SELECTED eRe leiis 


ing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me 
with gladness ; 

To the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, 
and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give 
thanks unto Thee for ever. 

—Psalm 3o. 





“The City of Immanuel” * 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present 
help in trouble. 

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be 
removed, and though the mountains be carried into 
the midst of the sea; | 

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
though the mountains shake with the swelling 
thereof. | 

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make 
glad the city of God, the holy place of the taber- 
nacles of the Most High. 

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moun 
God shall help her, and that right early. 

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He 
uttered his voice, the earth melted. 

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is 
our refuge. 

Come, behold the works of the Lord, what deso- 
lations He hath made in the earth. 

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the 


* Henry van Dyke. The Story of the Psalms (Scribner). 
° [ 160 ] 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear 
in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire. 
Be still, and know that Iam God: I will be exalted 
among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is 
our refuge. 
—Psalm 46. 





“Grateful Acknowledgment of Seedtime and 
Harvest ¢ 

Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion: and 
unto Thee shall the vow be performed. 

O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all 
flesh come. 

Iniquities prevail against me: as for our trans- 
gressions, Thou shalt purge them away. 

Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and 
causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in 
thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness 
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. 

By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou an- 
swer us, O God of our salvation; who art the con- 
fidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that 
are afar off upon the sea: 

Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains ; 
being girded with power: 

Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of 
their waves, and the tumult of the people. 


*J. B. Rotherham. Studies in the Psalms (Allenson). 
|S Ley ram 


SELECTED PSALMS 


They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are 
afraid at thy tokens: Thou makest the outgoings of 
the morning and evening to rejoice. 

Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou 
greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is 
full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou 
hast so provided for it. 

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: 
Thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it 
soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing 
thereof. 

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and 
thy paths drop fatness. 

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness : 
and the little hills rejoice on every side. 

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys 
also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, 
they also sing. . 
—Psalm 65. 





A Votive Hymn of Invitation to All to Join in — 
Praise to God 

Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: 

Sing forth the honour of his: name: make his 
praise glorious. 

Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in thy 
works! through the greatness of thy power shall 
thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. 

All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing 
unto Thee; they shall sing to thy name. 

[ 162 ] 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in 
his doing toward the children of men. 

He turned the sea into dry land: they went 
through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in 
Him. 

He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold 
the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. 

O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of 
his praise to be heard: 

Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not 
our feet to be moved. 

For Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast 
tried us, as silver is tried. 

Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidst af- 
fliction upon our loins. 

Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we 
went through fire and through water: but Thou 
broughtest us out into a wealthy place. 

I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I 
will pay Thee my vows, 

Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath 
spoken, when I was in trouble. 

Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will 
declare what He hath done for my soul. 

I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was 
extolled with my tongue. 

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not 
hear me: _ 

But verily God hath heard me; He hath attended 
to the voice of my prayer. 

[ 163 ] 


SELECTED: PSALMS 


Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my 
prayer, nor his mercy from me. . 
—Psalm 66. 





A Festal Response on Longing to See God 
Worslupped by All 

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause 
his face to shine upon us; 

That thy way may be known upon earth, thy 
saving health among all nations. 

Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the 
people praise Thee. 

O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for 
Thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern 
the nations upon earth. ) ; 

Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the 
people praise Thee. | 

Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, 
even our own God, shall bless us. . 

God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth 
shall fear Him. 

—Psalm 67. 





Joyful Tidings of the Coming Kingdom 
O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the 
Lord, all the earth. 
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show Part 
his salvation from day to day. 
Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders 


among all people. 
[ 164 ] 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: 
He is to be feared above all gods. 

For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the 
Lord made the heavens. 

Honour and majesty are before Him: strength 
and beauty are in his sanctuary. 

Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, 
give unto the Lord glory and strength. 

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: 
bring an offering, and come into his courts. 

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear 
before Him, all the earth. 

Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: 
the world also shall be established that it shall not 
be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. 

Let the heavens’ rejoice, and let the earth be 
glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: 
then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice 

Before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh 
to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with 
righteousness, and the people with his truth. 

—Psalm 96. 





“The Praise of Prayer”* 
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: for 
his mercy endureth for ever. 
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He 
hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 


*Henry van Dyke. The Story of the Psalms (Scribner). 
[ 165 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


And gathered them out of the lands, from the 
east, and from the west, from the north, and from 
the south. 

They wandered in the walierness in a solitary 
way; they found no city to dwell in. 

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, 
and He delivered them out of their distresses. 

And He led them forth by the right way, that they 
might go to a city of habitation. 

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his pat 
ness, and for his wonderful works to the children 
of men! 

For He satisfieth. the longing soul, and-filleth the 
hungry soul with goodness. 

Such as sit in darkness and in the Aeetis of 
death, being bound in affliction and iron; 

Because they rebelled against the words of God, 
and contemned the counsel of the Most High: 

Therefore He brought down their heart with 
labour ; they fell down, and there was none to help. 

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, 
and He saved them out of their distresses. 

He brought them out of darkness and the- static 
of death, and brake their bands in sunder. 

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness, and for his wonderful works to the children of 
men! 

For He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut 
the bars of iron in sunder. 

[ 166 ] 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


Fools, because of their transgression, and because 
of their iniquities, are afflicted. 

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and 
they draw near unto the gates of death. 

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and 
He saveth them out of their distresses. 

He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered 
them from their destructions. 

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness, and for his wonderful works to the children of 
men ! 

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanks- 
giving, and declare his works with rejoicing. 

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do 
business in great waters; 

These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders 
in the deep. 

For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy 
wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again 
to the depths: their soul is melted because of trou- 
ble. 

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken 
man, and are at their wit’s end. 

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and 
He bringeth them out of their distresses. 

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves 
thereof are still. 

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He 
bringeth them unto their desired haven. 

[ 167 J 


SELECTED. PSALMS 


Oh that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness, and for his wonderful works to the children 
of men! . 

Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of 
the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the 
elders. | 

He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water- 
springs into dry ground; 

A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wicked: 
ness of them that dwell therein. 

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, 
and dry ground into watersprings. 

And there He maketh the hungry to dwell, that 
they may prepare a city for habitation; 

And sow the fields, and plant SiH esralea which 
may yield fruits of increase. 

He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied 
greatly ; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. 

Again, they are minished and brought low through 
oppression, affliction, and sorrow. | 

He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth 
them to wander in the wilderness, where there is 
no way. , 

Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, 
and maketh him families like a flock. 

The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all. 
iniquity shall stop her mouth. 

Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even 
they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. 

—Psalm 107. 
[ 168 ] ; 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


A Votive Hymn for Deliverance from Death 


I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice 
and my supplications. 

Because He hath inclined his ear unto me, there- 
fore will I call upon Him as long as I live. 

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains 
of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sor- 
row. 

Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, 
I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. 

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God 
is merciful. 

The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought 
low, and He helped me. 

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord 
hath dealt bountifully with thee. 

For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine 
eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 

I will walk before the Lord in the land of the 
living. 

I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly 
afflicted : 

I said in my haste, All men are liars. 

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his 
benefits toward me? 

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the 
name of the Lord. 

I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the 
presence of all his people. 


[ 169 ] 


—Psalm 1106. 


SELECTED! PSALMS 


Thanksgiving for Sudden Deliverance 


If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, 
now may Israel say; 

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, 
when men rose up against us: 

Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their 
wrath was kindled against us: 

Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream 
had gone over our soul: 

Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 

Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a 
prey to their teeth. 

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of 
the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are 
escaped. 

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made 
heaven and earth. | 

‘“—Psalm 124. 


ee 


The Certainty of God’s Response 


I will praise Thee with my whole heart: before 
the gods will I sing praise unto Thee. 

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise 
thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: 
for Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy 
name, 

In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and 
strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 

[ 170 ] 


THANKSGIVING PSALMS 


All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O 
Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. 

Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for 
great is the glory of the Lord. 

Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect 
unto the lowly: but the proud He knoweth afar off. 

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt 
revive me: Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand 
against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right 
hand shall save me. 

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: 
thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not 
the works of thine own hands. 

| —Psalm 138. 


[ 171 ] 


O Lorn, Thou art our refuge in every time of trouble 
and of danger. Though we forget Thee, too often, when 
our path is unshadowed, and all goes well with us, yet in 
the day of affliction, when clouds overspread our sky, Thou 
art remembered by us as our only refuge, and to Thee we 
flee. Gracious Father, hear us, when we call upon Thee, 
and grant us thy protection. Help me, dear Father, in the 
midst of distress and danger and care, to trust Thee more 
fully, and to commit myself to thy care in filial confidence. 
May I be able to realize more fully than I have ever done 
that “all things work together for good to them that love 
God and are the called according to his purpose.” Help 
me to feel that underneath me at all times are the ever- 
lasting arms. So shall I have peace and rest. Keep me, O 
Lord, under the shadow of thy wings, until life’s storms be 
overpast, and bring me with all thy faithful ones, to the 
peaceful haven of everlasting rest; through Jesus Christ, 
to whom be glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

—J. H. Garrison (Alone With God— 
Christian Board of Publication). — 


[ 172 ] 


PETITION PSALMS 





The Lifting Up of the Soul in Supplication 

Unto Thee, O Lord, do IJ lift up my soul. 

O my God, I trust in Thee: let me not be ashamed, 
let not mine enemies triumph over me, 

Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let 
them be ashamed which transgress without cause. 

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. 

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art 
the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the 
day. 

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy 
lovingkindnesses ; for they have been ever of old. 

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my trans- 
gressions: according to thy mercy remember Thou 
me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord. 

Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will He 
teach sinners in the way. 

The meek will He guide in judgment: and the 
meek will He teach his way. 

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth 
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. 

For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniq- 
uity ; for it is great. 

What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall 
He teach in the way that He shall choose. 

[ 173 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall 
inherit the earth. 7 

The secret of the Lord is with aes: that fear 
Him; and He will shew them his covenant. 

Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for He shall 
pluck my feet out of the net. 

Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; 
for I am desolate and afflicted. 

The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring 
Thou me out of my distresses. 

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and for- 
give all my sins. 

Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and 
they hate me with cruel haired 

O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be 
ashamed; for I put my trust in Thee. 

Let integrity and uprightness Ss ene me; for I 
wait on Thee. 

Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. — 

—Psalm 25. 





“A Sufferers Consolation” * 


Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord 
will deliver him in time of trouble. 

The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; 
and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and Thou 
wilt not deliver him unto the will of his ‘enemies. 

The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of 


*The New-Century Bible (Froude). 
[ 174 ] 


PETITION PSALMS 


languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sick- 
ness. 

I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; 
for I have sinned against Thee. 

Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, 
and his name perish? 

And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his 
heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth 
abroad, he telleth it. 

All that hate me whisper together against me: 
against me do they devise my hurt. 

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: 
and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, 
which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel 
against me. | 

But Thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise 
me up, that I may requite them. 

By this I know that Thou favourest me, because 
mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 

And as for me, Thou upholdest me in mine in- 
tegrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlast- 
ing, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. 

—Psalm 41. 





The Leading of Light and Truth 
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an 
ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and 


unjust man. 
eye 


SELECTED PSALMS 


For Thou art the God of my strength: why dost 
Thou cast me off? why go. I mourning because of 
the oppression of the enemy? : 

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead 

; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to 
i Hens 

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God 
my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise 
Thee, O God my God. 

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art 
thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall 
yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, 
and my God. 

—Psalm 43. 





“A Prayer Without a Petition” * 


O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: 
my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for 
Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 

To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen 
Thee in the sanctuary. 

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my 
lips shall praise Thee. 

Thus will I bless Thee while I live: I will lift up 
my hands in thy name. 

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and 
fatness ; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful 
lips: 

*Henry van Dyke. The Story of the Psalms (Scribner). 
[ 176 ] 


PETITION PSALMS 


When I remember Thee upon my bed, and medi- 
tate on Thee in the night watches. 

Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the 
shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 

My soul followeth hard after Thee: thy right hand 
upholdeth me. 

But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall 
go into the lower parts of the earth. 

They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a por- 
tion for foxes. 

But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that 
sweareth by Him shall glory: but the mouth of them 
that speak lies shall be stopped. 

3 —Psalm 63. 





A Faithful Servant Casting Himself on the 
Mercy of God 

Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am 
poor and needy. 

Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O Thou my 
God, save thy servant that trusteth in Thee. 

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto 
Thee daily. 

Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto Thee, 
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 

For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; 
and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon 
Thee. 

Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to 
the voice of my supplications. 

[ 177 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: 
for Thou wilt answer me. 

Among the gods there is none Ai unto Thee, O 
Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy 
works. 

All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and 
worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy 
name. 

For Thou art great, AH doest wondrous things: 
Thou art God alone. 

Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy 
truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. 

I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my 
heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. 

For great is thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast 
delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the 
assemblies of violent men have ‘sought after my 
soul; and have not set Thee before them. 

But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, 
and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy — 
and truth. 

O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give 
thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of 


’ thine handmaid. 


Shew me a token for good; that they which hate 
me may see it, and be ashamed: because Thou, Lord, 
hast holpen me, and comforted me. 

—Psalm 86. 


[ 178 ] 


PETTTION, PSAEMS 


A Petition for Understanding 


Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I 
shall keep it unto the end. 

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; 
yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 

Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ; 
for therein do I delight. 

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to 
covetousness. | 

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity ; and 
quicken Thou me in thy way. 

Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is de- 
voted to thy fear. 

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy 
judgments are good. 

Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken 
me in thy righteousness. 

—Psalin 119: 33-40. 


“A Prayer of the Despised” * 

Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwell- 
est in the heavens. 

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand 
of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto 
the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the 
Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us, 


1Richard G. Moulton. The Modern Readers Bible 
(Macmillan). 
[ 179 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon 
us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 

Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of 
those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the 
proud, —Psalm 123. 





Prayerful Caution in the Use of the Tongue 


Lord, I cry unto Thee: make haste unto me; give 
ear unto my voice, when I cry unto Thee. 

Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as in- 
cense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening | 
eenfice 

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the 
door of my lips. 

Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise 
wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let 
me not eat of their dainties. 

Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: 
and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, - 
which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer 
also shall be in their calamities. | 

When their judges are overthrown in stony places, 
they shall hear my words; for they are sweet. 

Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as 
when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. 

But mine eyes are unto Thee, O God the Lord: in 
Thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. 

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for 


me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. 
[ 180 ] , 


PETITION PSALMS 


Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst 
that I withal escape. 
—Psalm 141. 





A Voice of Loneliness 


I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my 
voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. 

I poured out my complaint before Him; I shewed 
before Him my trouble. 

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then 
Thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I 
walked have they privily laid a snare for me. 

I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there 
was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; 
no man cared for my soul. 

I cried unto Thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my 
refuge and my portion in the land of the living. 

Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: 
deliver me from my persecutors; for they are 
stronger than I. 

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise 
thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; 
for Thou shalt deal bountifully with me. 

—Psalm 142. 


[ 181 ] 


O Lorn, we thank Thee for the beginnings as well as for 
the end of things, for processes as well as for results, for 
seedtime as well as for harvest, and especially for the days 
of growth. Let the beauty of the summertide and the 
broadening of the leaves speak to our hearts of thy un- 
ceasing care. Forgive us our forgetful hours and by thy 
mercy turn complaints to praise. How wonderful are all 
thy works that we behold! ‘Teach us to expect new won- 
ders as we see more of Thee. And may we by thy good 
Spirit grow in wisdom as we grow in years, becoming 
childlike in our faith and expectation, as becometh thy 
children and the followers of our oo Brother, Christ. 
In his name. Amen. 

—Isaac OcpEN Rankin (A Diary for the Thank- 
ful Hearted by Mary Hodgkin—Methuen). . 


‘T 182°] i ; 


NATURE PSALMS 





God in Nature 


O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in 
ali the earth! who hast set thy glory above the 
heavens. 

Out of the nth of babes and sucklings hast 
Thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, 
that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy 
fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast 
ordained ; 

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and 
the son of man, that Thou visitest him? 

For thou hast made him a little lower than the 
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and hon- 
our. 

Thou madest him to have dominion over the 
works of thy hands; Thou hast put all mass under 
his feet: 

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
field ; 

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and 
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in 
all the earth! 

—Psalm &. 
[ 183 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


“ The Heavens Above and the Law Within” * 

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the 
firmament sheweth his handywork. 

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
night sheweth knowledge. 

There is no speech nor language, where their 
voice is not heard. 

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and 
their words to the end of the world. In them hath 
He’set a tabernacle for’ the sum 

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his 
chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a> 
race. 

His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and 
his circuit unto the ends if it: and there is nothing 
hid from the heat thereof. | 

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise 
the simple. 

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, en- 
lightening the eyes. 

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: 
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether. 

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than 
much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the 
honeycomb. 





*Richard G. Moulton. The Modern Readers Bible 
(Macmillan). 
[ 184 ] 


NATURE PSALMS 


Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in 
keeping of them there is great reward. 

Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me 
from secret faults. 

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous 
sins ; let them not have dominion over me: then shall 
I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great 
transgression. 

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation 
of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my 
strength, and my redeemer. 

—Psalm 19. 





God in the Storm 

Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the 
Lord glory and strength. 

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; 
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the 
God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many 
waters. 

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of 
the Lord is full of majesty. 

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, 
the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 

He maketh them also to skip like a calf ; Lebanon 
and Sirion like a young unicorn. 

The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. 

The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness ; the 
Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 

[ 185 ] 


SELECTED? PSALMS 


The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, 
and discovereth the forests: and in his Be doth 
every one speak of his glory. 

The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord 
sitteth King for ever. 

The Lord will give strength unto his people; the 
Lord will bless his people with peace. —Psalm 29. 





> 


The Voice of the Waters 


The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with majesty; 
the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith He 
hath girded Himself: the world also is stablished, 
that it cannot be moved. 

Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from 
everlasting. 

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have 
lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of 
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. 

Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh ~ 
thine house, O Lord, for ever. 

—Psalm 93. 





“An Ode of Creation” * 

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, 
Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honour 
and majesty: 

Who coverest thyself with light as with a gar- 


*J.J.S. Perowne. The Book of Psalms (Draper). 
[ 186 ] 


NATURE PSALMS 


ment: who stretchest out the heavens like a cur- 
tain: . 

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the 
waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who 
walketh upon the wings of the wind: 

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a 
flaming fire: 

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it 
should not be removed for ever. 

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a gar- 
ment; the waters stood above the mountains. 

At ‘thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy 
thunder they hasted away. 

They go up by the mountains; they go down by 
the valleys unto the place which Thou hast founded 
for them. 

Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass 
over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. 

He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run 
among the hills. 

They give drink to every beast of the field: the 
wild asses quench their thirst. 

By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their 
habitation, which sing among the branches. 

He watereth the hills from his chambers: the 
earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. 

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and 
herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth 
food out of the earth; 

And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and 

[ 187 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


oil to make his face to shine, and bread which 
strengtheneth man’s heart. © 

The trees of the Lord are full of sap;.the cedars 
of Lebanon, which He hath planted; 

Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, 
the fir trees are her house. 

The high hills are a refuge for the ait goats ; 
and the rocks for the conies. 

He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun 
knoweth his going down. | 

Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all 
the beasts of the forest do creep forth. 

The young lions roar after their prey, and seek — 
their meat from God. | 

The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, 
and lay them down in their dens. 

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour 
until the evening. 

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom 
hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of thy 
riches. . 

So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things 
creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. 

There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom 
Thou hast made to play therein. 

These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give 
them their meat in due season. 

That Thou givest them they gather: Thou openest 
thine hand, they are filled with good. 

Thou hidest thy face, they are ee Thou 

[ 188 ] 


NATURE PSALMS 


takest away their breath, they die, and return to their 
dust. ; 

Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: 
and Thou renewest the face of the earth. 

The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the 
Lord shall rejoice in his works. 

He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: He 
toucheth the hills, and they smoke. 

I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will 
sing praise to my God while I have my being. 

My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be 
glad in the Lord. 

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and 
let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O 
my soul. Praise ye the Lord. 

| —Psalm 104. 


[ 189 ] 


Great ART THOU, O Lorn, and greatly to be praised; 
great is thy power, and thy wisdom infinite. Thou awakest 
us to delight in thy praise; for Thou madest us for thyself, 
and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, 
Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on 
Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to | 
call on Thee? For who can call on Thee, not knowing 
Thee? For he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee 
as Other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on 
Thee that we may know Thee? But how shall they call on 
Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they 
believe without a preacher? And they that seek the Lord 
- shall praise Him. For they that seek shall find Him, and 
they that find shall praise Him. 


—The Confessions of St. Augustine. 


[ 190 ] ' 


ADORATION PSALMS 


A Hymn of God’s Mercy in Forgiveness of Sins 

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within 
me, bless his holy name. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his 
benefits : 

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth 
all thy diseases ; 

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who 
crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mer- 
cies ; 

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so 
that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 

The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment 
for all that are oppressed. 

He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts 
unto the children of Israel. 

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 
and plenteous in mercy. 

He will not always chide: neither will He keep 
his anger for ever. 

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor re- 
warded us according to our iniquities. 

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so 
great is his mercy toward them that fear Him. 

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath 
He removed our transgressions from us. 

[ tor ] 


SELECTED RSAEaS 


Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear Him. | 

For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth 
that we are dust. . 

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of 
the field, so he flourisheth. 

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and 
the place thereof shall know it no more. 

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to 
everlasting upon them that fear Him, and his 
righteousness unto children’s children ; 

To such as keep his covenant, and to those that 
remember his commandments to do them. 

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens ; 
and his kingdom ruleth over all. 

Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in 
strength, that do his commandments, hearkening 
unto the voice of his word. | 

Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers 
of his, that do his pleasure. 

Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his’ 
dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul. 

—Psalm 103. 





A Votive Anthem on the Work and Attributes 
of God 
Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with 
my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and 
in the congregation. 
[ 192 ] 


ADORATION PSALMS 


The works of the Lord are great, sought out of 
all them that have pleasure therein. 

His work is honourable and glorious: and _ his 
righteousness endureth for ever. 

He hath made his wonderful works to be remem- 
bered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 

He hath given meat unto them that fear Him: 
He will ever be mindful of his covenant. 

He hath shewed his people the power of his works, 
that He may give them the heritage of the heathen. 

The works of his hands are verity and judgment; 
all his commandments are sure. 

They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done 
in truth and uprightness. 

He sent redemption unto his people: He hath 
commanded his covenant for ever: holy and rev- 
erend is his name. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: 
a good understanding have all they that do his com- 
mandments ; his praise endureth for ever. 

—Psalm 111. 


—_——_—_____. 


A Festal Anthem on God’s Universal Rule 


I will extol Thee, my God, O King; and I will 
bless thy name for ever and ever. 
Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise thy 
name for ever and ever. 
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and 
his greatness is unsearchable. 
[ 193 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


One generation shall praise thy works to another, 
and shall declare thy mighty acts. — 

I will speak of the glorious honour of ae maj- 
esty, and of thy wondrous works. 

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible 
acts: and I will declare thy greatness. | 

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy 
great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. 

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; 
slow to anger, and of great mercy. 

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies 
are over all his works. 

All thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and + 
saints shall bless Thee. | 

They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and 
talk of thy power; 

To make known to the sons ee men his mighty 
acts, and the glorious majesty of his Kingdom. 
Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and thy 
dominion endureth throughout all generations. | 
The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all 
those that be bowed down. | 

The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest 
them their meat in due season. — 

Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire 
of every living thing. 

The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in 
all his works. 

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, 
to all that call upon Him in truth. 

[ 104 ] 


ADORATION PSALMS 


He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: 
He also will hear their cry, and will save them. 
The Lord preserveth all them that love Him: but 
all the wicked will He destroy. 
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and 
let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. 
—Psalm 145. 


A Festal Anthem on Trust in God 


Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. 

While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing 
praises unto my God while I have any being. 

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of 
man, in whom there is no help. 

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; 
in that very day his thoughts perish. 

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his 
help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: 

Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all 
that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 

Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: 
which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth 
the prisoners: 

The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord 
raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth 
the righteous: | 

The Lord preserveth the strangers; He relieveth 
the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked 
He turneth upside down. 

[ 195 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O 
Zion, unto all generations. | Praise ye the Lord. 
—Psalm 146. 





A Festal Anthem on God’s Rule in Nature and 
Mankind | 

Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises 
unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is 
comely. 

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem; He gathereth 
together the outcasts of Israel. 

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up 
their wounds. 

He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth 
them all by their names. 

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his under- 
standing is infinite. 

The Lord lifteth up the meek: He casteth the 
wicked down to the ground. 

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise 
upon the harp unto our God: 

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who pre- 
pareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow 
upon the mountains. 

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young 
ravens which cry. 

He delighteth not in the strength of the pena 
He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, 
in those that hope in his mercy. 


[ 196 ] 


ADORATION PSALMS 


Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O 
Zion. 

For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; 
He hath blessed thy children within thee. 

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee 
with the finest of the wheat. 

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: 
his word runneth very swiftly. 

He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoar 
frost like ashes. 

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can 
stand before his cold? 

He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: He 
causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. 

He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and 
his judgments unto Israel. 

He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for 
his judgments, they have not known them, Praise 
ye the Lord. 

3 —Psalm 147. 





A Festal Anthem on Praise to God in Heaven 
and on Earth 

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the 
heavens: praise Him in the heights. 

Praise ye Him, all his angels: praise ye Him, all 
his hosts. 

Praise ye Him, sun and moon: praise Him, all ye 
stars of light. 

[ 197 ] 


SELECTED PSALMS 


Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters 
that be above the heavens. | 

Let them praise the name of the Lord: for He 
commanded, and they were created. 

He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: 
He hath made a decree which shall not pass. 

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and 
all deeps: 3 

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind 
fulfilling his word: | | 

Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all 
cedars: 

Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and pyle 
fowl: 

Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all 
judges of the earth: . 

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and 
children: | 

Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his 
name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth 
and heaven. 

He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise 
of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a 
people near unto Him. Praise ye the Lord. 

—Psalm 148. 





“The Doxology of the Psalter” * 
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: 
praise Him in the firmament of his power. 


‘J.J. S. Perowne. The Book of Psalms Calle 
[ 198 ] 


ADORATION PSALMS 


Praise Him for his mighty acts: praise Him ac- 
cording to his excellent greatness. 

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: praise 
Him with the psaltery and harp. 

Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise 
Him with stringed instruments and organs. 

Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him 
upon the high sounding cymbals. 

Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

—Psalm 150. 


[ 190 ] 


Not wHAt, but whom, I do believe, 
That, in my darkest hour of need, 

Hath comfort that no mortal creed 
To mortal man may give ;— 

Not what, but whom! 
For Christ is more than all the creeds, 
And his full life of gentle deeds. 
Shall all the creeds outlive. 

Not what I do believe, but whom! 
Who walks beside me in the gloom? 
Who shares the burden wearisome. 
Who all the dim way doth illume, 
And bids me look beyond the tomb ~ 
The larger life to live?— 

Not what I do believe, 

But whom! | 

Not what, 

But whom! 


—JoHN OxENHAM (Credo—Methuen, London). 


XIX 
ites RAY PR Oi] S US 


THESE things spake Jesus; and lifting up his 
eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour is come; 
glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee: 
even as, Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, 
that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He should 
give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they 
should know Thee the only true God, and Him 
whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. I glori- 
fied Thee on the earth, having accomplished the 
work which Thou hast given me to do. And now, 
Father, glorify Fhou Me with thine own self with 
the glory which I had with Thee before the world 
was. I manifested thy name unto the men whom 
Thou gavest Me out of the world: thine they were, 
and Thou gavest them to Me; and they have kept 
thy word. Now they know that all things what- 
soever Thou hast given Me are from Thee: for the 
words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto 
them; and they received them, and knew of a truth 
that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that 
‘Thou didst send Me. I pray for them: I pray not 
for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given 
Me; for they are thine: and all things that are 
mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am 
glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, 

[ 2o1 ] 


THE PRAYER OF JESUS 


and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. 
Holy Father, keep them in thy name which Thou 
hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We 
are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy 
name which Thou hast given Me: and I guarded 
them, and not one of them perished, but the son of 
perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 
But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak 
in the world, that they may have my joy made 
full in themselves. I have given them thy word; 
and the world hated them, because they are not of 
the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray 
not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, — 
but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil 
one. They are not of the world, even as I am not 
of the world. Sanctify them in the truth: thy 
word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the 
world, even so sent I them into the world. And’ 
for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they them- 
selves also may be sanctified in truth. Neither for 
these only do I pray, but for them also that believe — 
on Me through their word; that they may all be 
one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in 
Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world 
may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the 
glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto 
them; that they may be one, even as We are one; 
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be per- 
fected into one; that the world may know that Thou 
didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou 
[ 202 ] 


En Koa te US 


lovedst Me. Father, I desire that they also whom 
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that 
they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given 
Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of 
the world. O righteous Father, the world knew 
Thee not, but I knew Thee; and these knew that 
Thou didst send Me; and I made known unto them 
thy name, and will make it known; that the love 
wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and 
I in them. 


—JOoHN 17 (R. V.). 


[ 203 ] 


XX 
DOES GOD SPEAK? 


It was the Gray Dawn of time when— } 

Man first caught within himself the living light, 

And, henceforth, muffled voices within us have been the 
echoes of God. 

For He is the Living Voice. 


It was Sunrise to me when— 

He awakened me, saying: “Ask of Me, and I will give 
thee the nations for thine inheritance, 

And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” 

Then, spilling sunlight through the distant years, He called 
me to the vision of his triumph. 

For He is the Living Revealer. 


It was Noon to me when— 

In the sanctuary of prayer I set forth my claim to kinship . 
with God and the spiritual value of the fellowship of 
souls, 

And, forthwith, a warm, living light flashed through me like 
a great shooting star. 

For He is the Living Hope. 


It was the Sunset of the world when— 

Beside the sacrificial altar I beheld that I am an heir of 
the universe with its crowns of living gold, 

And, from beneath the shadow of the Cross, a radiant 
light poured out on the pathway to the Throne. 

For He is the Living Redeemer. 


[ 204 ] 


XXI 
THE LORD’S PRAYER 


AND HE said unto them, When ye pray 
say: Our Father who are in heaven, Hal- 
lowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. And 
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive 
those who trespass against us. And lead us 
not into temptation; but deliver us from 
evil: for thine is the Kingdom, and the 
power, and the glory, for ever and ever. 


Amen. 


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